Sustainable, vegan outerwear label Apparis has announced a rebranding initiative that includes a revamped website design and visual identity as it puts more focus on its alternatives to cashmere, along with its vegan shearling, leather, fur, and wool.
Since its 2016 debut, Apparis has grown far beyond its outerwear roots, extending its reach into ready-to-wear fashion, home decor, accessories, and even pet collections.
But its innovative alternative to traditional cashmere, as part of the Alt-knit collection crafted from a synthetic yarn, is expected to be a game-changer, eliminating the need for materials sourced from animals. This collection represents a significant growth opportunity for Apparis, reflecting its ongoing commitment to sustainability and innovation in fashion.
The company says its shift toward a broader lifestyle brand triggered the need for a new direction and visual identity, aligning more closely with its elevated design approach. “This rebranding and new visual identity is to set the tone internally and allows us to reevaluate our DNA as a brand and to create new products and new brand partnerships to keep scaling and growing our business,” Lauren Nouchi, one of Apparis’s co-founders, told WWD.
Apparis’s commitment to ethical materials is evident in its fabric selection, which includes vegan shearling, plant-based fur, vegan leathers, vegan alpaca, and vegan wool. “It’s something for us that’s important to keep building on the outerwear, and the knitwear felt right,” Nouchi said. It’s a great layering piece, and we like to play with color.”
The label is focused on “conscious, elevated playful and bold design at an attainable price point,” Nouchi said, emphasizing how Apparis disrupted the industry in 2018 with its affordable alternatives to the environmentally destructive animal-based items. Cashmere, for example, has been linked to the decline of the elusive snow leopards. Leather, a co-product of the meat and dairy industries, is one of the biggest emitters of methane — a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2.
Later this year, Apparis will open its first pop-up store in Bon Marché, Paris, concentrating on its lifestyle collection, including items like blankets, pillows, slippers, accent rugs, and small decorative objects.
Sarah Campbell, art director of I Love Creatives Studio, who assisted with the rebranding, says the agency aimed “to create a luxe brand identity and seamless e-commerce website that expresses the bold spirit of the brand. Building upon the core pillars of consciousness and playfulness, the refreshed web design elevates the brand experience into the high fashion sphere.”
Apparis’s new brand identity emphasizes an evolution, not a drastic change. Nouchi elaborated on the brand’s journey.
“For us, it’s an evolution. It’s not a 180, it’s just evolving with the future of the brand,” she said. “In order to grow, it was important to move away from that a little bit, and put more emphasis on elevated and the concept of conscious fashion.”
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