5 Things I Learned During My Tour of the Amour Vert HQ
If you know me in real life, you may have heard me mention the clothing brand Amour Vert one or 10 times. A couple of years ago, during my journey to find high quality clothing that didn’t break the bank and looked good on my difficult to shop for bodytype, (hourglass shaped with a long torso, short legs and wide shoulders) I stumbled upon this brand while on Chestnut Street during one of their sales. And after I purchased my first dress with the company, I never looked back.
Amour Vert is a San Francisco based company that specializes in sustainable high quality womenswear that can take you from the office to the SF bar scene and everywhere in between. Their custom fabrics and designs boast both a timeless elegance, and durability for more wears and washes than you can imagine.
After discovering that their clothing flatters a wide range of bodytypes (including mine,) I continued to fill my closet up with their garments. They now take up over half of the clothing that I actively wear. And they are the only clothing brand I feel confident ordering from online.
Recently, they reached out to customers to pick our brains about our honest thoughts on the brand and our priorities while shopping. This visit also included a tour of their Dogpatch headquarters. And it was during that tour that I learned even more about the company that I’ve credited for most of my best outfits.
Note: This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts are my own.
97% of their products are made in California
These days, the use of the term “sustainable” to describe a clothing brand can come across a bit vague. With the rise of the public’s interest in green/eco-friendly clothing, it seems like every company wants to boast sustainability. And many of them keep their sustainable practices under-wraps (perhaps because they are exaggerated or non-existent and just a ploy to get people to trust their brand.) But Amour Vert is very transparent about their methods for implementing sustainable business practices. They create custom fabrics that require a fraction of the water and land cultivation of common fabrics on the market, and pay a fair wage to skilled designers and seamstresses (another very important and less talked about aspect of sustainable business practices in general.)
97% of their products are made in California, with much of it being made in the Bay in and around San Francisco.
The ethical business practice that I care about the most - which truly sells me on a company is that they are able to verify that the people making their garments are being paid a fair wage. With their products being made in California where there are strict regulations about wage, and with the tour of the facility giving me a good glance into the workdays of the pattern makers and seamstresses, I feel very confident doing most of my clothing shopping with them.
To learn more about their production team, you can always read blurbs about the seamstresses and factory owners under every listing on their site.
2. They Create Their Own Textile Designs
The next thing I witnessed was two women creating an intricate drawing of a flower on a sketch pad. They explained to us that Amour Vert’s prints on their silk garments are all hand-drawn before being made into a custom textile. It made me realize why there’s an organic ease to their prints. Knowing that not only the patterns and fabrics - but also the prints on the fabrics are custom to the company really cements to me how special the pieces are.
3. They Are Releasing Menswear
For the longest time, Steven has been complimenting me on how soft each of my Amour Vert garments are. And he’s even said before that he wishes he had shirts that soft. And now, that wish is becoming a reality, as Amour Vert has very recently released menswear including a crew neck t-shirt, a v-neck t-shirt, a sweatshirt and a hoodie. During my trip to the HQ, I got to see the staff photographing the products in preparation for the upcoming release.
I cannot wait to help Steven and my father stock up on these items. A representative at Amour Vert also informed me that once they hear what their new menswear customers have to say, they will start to come out with a larger selection.
4. They Are Selective in Who They Work With
While Amour Vert specializes in clothing made of their custom fabrics, they want you to be able to find every element of your perfect outfit at their stores and on their website. So they sell various brands in store for denim, leather, footwear, accessories and jewelry. Their website and store have turned me on to brands such as Agolde, Deadwood, SOKO jewelry (also based out of San Francisco,) and many many more.
After trying out the other brands they have to offer, I always feel confident that even if I do purchase outside their brand on their site/in their store, that I will still be receiving a stylish quality piece.
And that’s because Amour Vert is extremely selective in which brands they associate themselves with. Their employees vet each and every brand for similar quality and business practices, and hand pick which items from each brand would be the most applicable for their customer and go look good with their clothing. Which is why it’s so easy to construct entire outfits using only pieces from their store.
5. They’re Really Interested In What The Customer Thinks
Something that I appreciated about my visit was just how much everyone wanted to know what I and the other customers thought. They wanted to know everything I want in a brand, everything I want in a shopping experience and what I wish they sold. Whenever I mentioned a fit issue I had with a specific garment, they knew the stats on how many customers had mentioned the issue before and what they planned to do to fix the problem. They could quote back to me what people said in negative reviews about products on their website. It made me feel very confident that in the rare event that I have to write a negative review on a product, that it’s not just being seen by fellow customers, but by the people who are able to make a change to better the product.
In a world where I constantly feel like companies are trying to trick me into buying something by either taking pretty photos or boasting false qualities to it, it was a relief during this tour to genuinely feel like Amour Vert wanted to tailor my experience with them, to keep me happy and well-stocked with beautiful clothing. That dedication to customer satisfaction is a huge factor in why I love this brand. The experience of being a happy customer with them is a very - pun probably intended - sustainable one.
I hope that this helps anyone looking for sustainable and ethical clothing brands, as well as those looking for garments that fit and feel good.
And of course, thank you to Amour Vert for the lovely tour of the office and for taking the time to hear my thoughts! I’ll be back at your stores soon for a v-neck shirt for Steven once he decides on a color!
Click here to shop their website, and click here to find a location near you. Be sure to keep in the know with my blog for future San Francisco-based lifestyle content.