For its first celebrity-fronted marketing campaign, Everlane chose to work with a member of the exact demographic it’s hoping to target: Gen-Z.
The DTC brand hired Laufey— the 26-year-old Icelandic singer whose romantic, girlish aesthetic and contemporary jazz-infused, diaristic music has made her into something of a Gen-Z it girl in recent years — to star in its fall campaign, which launched on Monday. Laufey’s approachable modernisation of a classic genre perfectly taps into Gen-Z’s nostalgia kick and aligns with Everlane’s new gambit to give its standard silhouette a fashionable upgrade, according to Lisa Perez, Everlane’s vice president of brand.
“She’s just the perfect bridge between [looking back] and also looking forward, and she’s still a cheeky, fun, trendy person in her own way. That Gen-Z audience really relates to that,” Perez said. “The way that she represents herself and how her fans react to her is exactly what we’ve been trying to hit on.”
The campaign, called “Laufey in Everland,” positions a new collection of elevated basics set against a fake cityscape — replete with a fictional Everlane building. In one of the images, a larger-than-life Laufey sits on a fake street with a doe-eyed expression wearing a knit cardigan, T-strap flats and high socks with a miniature version of Everlane’s headquarters directly behind her — a juxtaposition symbolising the brand’s past and its future. The campaign launch features 25 videos including behind-the-scenes footage for social media, as well billboards in New York and Los Angeles, the company’s first in seven years, Perez added.
It’s the latest move in the company’s ongoing mission to shed its previous identity as a nondescript basics maker and instead be recognised first for its design sensibility. Leading the charge is chief executive Alfred Chang, who joined the company last year after CEO stints at Fear of God and PacSun. Since he came on board, Chang has hired a new design team and a senior director of brand partnerships and collaborations to develop partnerships with talent like Laufey.
While Everlane’s early years were defined by a marketing strategy centred on paid social ads meant to drive conversions, it’s lately prioritising longer-term brand-building efforts. In May, Everlane debuted its first ever brand campaign, called “Clean Luxury. Better For You,” which featured a metaphorical (and literal, with an installation in its Los Angeles store) hill representing the trials of producing sustainable garments and rebranding in the age of oversaturation.
It’s also a tactic many DTC brands are using to differentiate themselves from dupe labels like Quince, which still relies on paid ads.
The Laufey-fronted “Everland” campaign, though, is as much about widening Everlane’s appeal — Laufey has an audience of nearly 17 million followers across TikTok and Instagram — as it is about the actual clothes, which has undergone a significant refresh in the last three years, introducing new fabrications and silhouettes. But while Everlane’s past product-focused marketing was mainly populated by unknown models, this campaign is centred on Laufey’s point-of-view — picturing her amid a miniature city, for instance, was inspired by her love of “cute and small things” and “creating worlds,” Perez said.
“It’s a smart choice for them. It doesn’t feel like such a wild swing. She’s on TikTok and she relates to Gen-Z, but there’s an intellectual bent to her vibe that fits with the Everlane vibe,” said Emily Heyward, co-founder and chief brand officer of creative agency Red Antler. “This is a great way to signal to the world we’re up to something new, pay attention. ‘If you already formed an opinion about us, you might want to reconsider, or if you’ve never heard of us, come on in, we’ve got something for you.’”
Still, Everlane has more hills to climb in convincing Gen-Z fashion girls that it should be their go-to label. The brand’s “Clean Luxury” campaign in May led to a 10 percent increase in average order value, Chang told BoF in July. But Everlane’s engagement across social media platforms fell 60 percent year over year in July, according to influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ, and its sales dipped 1 percent year over year in 2024.
Chang knows Everlane has its work cut out for it: “It is our responsibility to have a stronger, more compelling brand narrative beyond price,” he told BoF in an interview in July. Putting a rising star like Laufey in its ads is one way forward.
“Having someone who stands for things similar to what we stand for to help tell our brand story is going to be a key part of how we grow and evolve in the next three to five years,” Perez said. “We are very selective. We’re being very thoughtful about what we’re doing and who we’re working with, and it will be a central part of our strategy moving forward.”