Reformation’s Yael Aflalo Says “The Future Of Fashion Is Fast”
At a time when fashion is in a state of flux, we’re looking to the industry’s next generation as a guiding light. This New York Fashion Week, Refinery 29’s Future of American Fashion series is highlighting the designers, brands, and retailers we’re betting on big. The future starts here.
As department stores continue to crumble, Reformation founder and CEO Yael Aflalo has some valuable advice: “The future of fashion is fast.” Of course, the 39-year-old entrepreneur follows this mantra herself as she ships 52 deliveries a year of her insouciant printed dresses and cut-to-there, constantly sold-out bodysuits that are worn by the likes of Sienna Miller and Emily Ratajkowski. “A typical fashion brand ships four times a year; there’s just no benefit to designing clothes 18 months in advance,” she says. “You only get to learn [about your customer] four times a year, then — that’s not much learning.”
Aside from being educated by her woman (and subsequently giving her what she actually wants), Aflalo credits the immediacy of our culture — the rise of Insta gram and Snap chat and same-day Amazon Prime deliveries — for our insatiable desire for new, new, new. “Everything is fast now,” she continues. “Nobody wants to wait for something. I order my thing, I can get it within an hour. That’s how it is.”
