Michael Stars: A Journey of Activism, Equality and Empowerment in Vogue

Michael Stars is a love story to activism and equality. Cofounded by Suzanne Lerner and her late husband Michael Cohen, the Los Angeles-made model has been devoted to supporting and empowering girls lengthy earlier than it was common.

The duo created the Michael Stars Basis in 2005 to provide again to each the area people — greater than 70 % is manufactured in L.A. — and causes that influence girls and women typically. Right here, Lerner tells WWD’s sister model Sourcing Journal how the fashionable T-shirt and life-style model has advanced over time and the way her private expertise as a lady and entrepreneur drove her to provide again.

Michael Stars was based as a purpose-driven model in 1986. Was there one thing in your private upbringing or earlier jobs that drove this?

Suzanne Lerner: I used to be at all times an activist, from a younger age rising up in Chicago, which was a hotbed of anti-war protest, voting rights actions and early feminism. My highschool jobs have been secretarial, and in faculty, there have been no levels accessible in girls’s research, entrepreneurship or DEI coaching. I felt there was no path for me, so I dropped out. I set off touring around the globe — Europe, Australia and most of Asia — and in every single place I went I met girls who had their very own tales of gender inequality.

In India, I met a lady in a store who owned a vogue export firm and he or she invited me to be a associate together with her, and shortly after she and I have been in enterprise. Later, when working within the vogue business, I felt I wasn’t getting promoted due to my gender, so I grew to become an impartial rep and constructed a nationwide gross sales firm, which is how I met Michael. He walked into my showroom to indicate me a line of screen-printed sweatshirts. I didn’t just like the samples, however I preferred him, and requested him out on a date.

Did you title it Michael Stars since you “noticed stars” if you met one another?

S.L.: [Laughs]. No, however I really like that. John Stars was the artist who made the T-shirt graphics. Collectively, Michael and I got here up with the concept of creating the T a high-quality canvas for design. It was a complementary partnership. I knew the style enterprise as an skilled entrepreneur, and he was charismatic and an unbelievable marketer. We began with unisex, one-size-fits-all, however then moved on to our signature fitted Ts and constructed the corporate from there. Right this moment we embrace cashmere, vegan leather-based, sweaters, coats and Ts with Supima cotton grown in California, with whom we’ve had a relationship since 2004.

And also you at all times had the concept to provide to others?

S.L.: Michael and I at all times gave again. He’d examine a charity within the newspaper and pull out his checkbook — again when folks wrote checks. In the meantime, I used to be funding issues alone on girls’s empowerment, and making an attempt to get extra girls in Africa and India into authorities. We have been doing that individually, then determined to do it collectively by way of a basis.

As such a philanthropic individual, how do you select the organizations you’re employed with when there are such a lot of worthy causes?

S.L.: We noticed a possibility to construct an organization that represented what I believed an organization ought to be — one targeted on parity and gender equality within the office the place everybody might have the chance to rise. And we picked girls and women as a result of these are the folks we promote to.

The Michael Stars Basis, created 20 years in the past, gave us a much bigger platform for what we already believed in. It was uncommon for smaller firms to do that on the time, however we felt it was vital to indicate our values in motion. We deal with girls and women, folks of colour and underserved communities.

We work with some nationwide organizations however we lean towards grassroots and group organizations led by girls of colour, such because the Tender Basis in Atlanta. We additionally help mentoring throughout generations with Take the Lead and Step Up, and make sure the proper to vote by way of the (nonpartisan) group I’m a voter. Different charities we’ve got funded embrace the Ms. Basis for Girls, The Joyful Coronary heart Basis, We Advance Haiti, Kids Mending Hearts and A Name to Males.

What are some milestones within the Michael Stars Basis?

S.L.: We’ve funded many organizations for years — Step Up for 15 years; Take the Lead, Ms. Basis for Girls and Kids Mending Hearts for 10 years. We donate over $150,000 a 12 months to organizations by way of the Michael Stars Basis, whether or not we make a revenue or not, and we just lately began a volunteer program inside the firm to assist folks get engaged and concerned.

Michael Stars produces greater than 70 % of its clothes domestically in L.A. How do you preserve that when a lot of your competitors is produced abroad?

S.L.: We by no means considered going abroad initially. We introduced in patternmakers and pattern sewers and moved our manufacturing to L.A. (after our mill in Pennsylvania went out of enterprise as their prospects moved manufacturing to China). We had six materials and 100 types, and we shipped six to 9 months later. It was an unbelievable feat that we did it and we have been proud we have been capable of hold manufacturing in America.

Right this moment, we’ve got prospects who help us as a result of we make garments in America. We produce at cheap margins, at all times preserving high quality and pricing aligned and honest. And since we’re nearer to the method, we will guarantee high quality and honest wages. It additionally got here in useful throughout the pandemic since firms couldn’t get items out of China, however we have been capable of produce domestically.

Michael Stars partnered with ThredUp a few years in the past. What was the considering behind this?

S.L.: We’re within the business to provide clothes, however we don’t wish to see our model ending up in landfill. We’ve at all times heard tales of individuals carrying their Michael Stars items for over 20 years, so I began shopping for up classic Michael Stars items throughout COVID-19 on resale websites. I known as up ThredUp as a result of we didn’t have the bandwidth to do it ourselves. They informed us we have been one of many top-selling manufacturers on their web site and since 2020 we’ve recirculated and given a second likelihood to 91,000 Michael Stars objects, displaced 763,000 kilos of CO2e, equal to 832,000 miles of driving emissions, and saved 8 million gallons of water, equal to 16.1 million days of ingesting water.

Moreover, it’s a method to get Gen Z and youthful folks inquisitive about our model. With resale, we’re encouraging development when it comes to our buyer base, displaying that we care in regards to the setting and giving folks one other choice to buy our merchandise.

As a model in enterprise for nearly 40 years, you’ve seen the business change a lot. What’s latest in the way you promote and assist prospects?

S.L.: We’re presently working with Yotpo, which makes use of buyer suggestions to tell its sizing software, which helps cut back returns and enhance client satisfaction. It’s presently in improvement and can look much like Everlane’s sizing software. We additionally noticed e-commerce web gross sales enhance by roughly 137 % throughout the pandemic. Yr-to-date in 2023, 38 % of Michael Stars’ enterprise is finished on-line by means of michaelstars.com. That’s positively not one thing we had within the Eighties.