033. Rachel Faller on Finding Investors Willing to Invest in Manufacturing

This week we chat to Rachel Faller, the founder and creative director of tonlé. They’re one of the few brands we know of, “sustainable” or not, that does their own production. It’s a brand, and manufacturer, in one.

In this episode we chat to Rachel about why tonlé does its own manufacturing, and what that’s meant for the company as they’ve grown… Particularly when it came to finding investors. Rachel shares how being a manufacturer made it difficult to get investors on board, and how she’s balanced the industry’s emphasis on short-term shareholder returns with her convictions about what sustainability requires.

Want to dig deeper ?

Find out more about tonlé. Watch this video to learn more about tonlé’s zero waste process.

Check out River Blue, a documentary about water pollution and the fashion industry.

Read the Fashion on Climate report by McKinsey.

Read Winners Take All: “The New York Times bestselling, groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite’s efforts to “change the world” preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve. An essential read for understanding some of the egregious abuses of power that dominate today’s news.”

Photo provided by tonlé