Reformation

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Reformation is a sustainable, vertically-integrated women's clothing brand based in Downtown Los Angeles founded by Yael Aflalo, a former model, in 2009.[1] The company then relaunched in 2012 as an e-commerce business centered on a two-story factory in downtown Los Angeles and three stores, two in New York and one in L.A.[2] In 2014, it had revenues of $25 million and now counts Taylor Swift, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Rihanna, and Emily Ratajkowski as paying clients.

Controversy

In June 2020, former assistant manager at Reformation's flagship store, Elle Santiago, commented sharing some of her experiences with racism at the company on Reformation's Instagram post about Black Lives Matter, said that working for Reformation deeply traumatized her for being overlooked and under valued as a woman of color. Her comment soon garnered over 26,000 likes, far surpassing the 16,000 or so likes on Reformation's post itself.[3]

A few days later, Santiago created a dedicated post on her own Instagram to share more of her experiences. She described being passed over for hires despite having a proven track record effectively expanding and training the team, being denied a more senior title that reflected the work she was already doing, and being treated with "disgust" by the brand's founder, Yael Aflalo as the founder appeared to “purposely not answer if I called her name”. Santiago also recalled an incident in which she says Aflalo failed to speak up when a white employee posted pictures of herself on Instagram eating fried chicken to “celebrate” Black History Month.[4]

In respond to Santiago's post, Reformation's founder and CEO has written a public apology on her personal Instagram account and decided to step down from the company, effective immediately. Her position is replaced by Hali Borenstein, current Reformation president.[5]

Reference