CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH

With sustainable merino, Branwyn aims to build a brand that supports women and the planet.

- Strawberry Saroyan

It's hard to say exactly when serial entrepreneur Jeff Shafer soured on the apparel industry. It might have been when he learned, while sourcing for his fourth brand, Agave, that organic cotton wasn't necessarily organic. ("Ten times the amount of organic cotton is sold on the planet than is actually produced," he recalls being told. "Because of lying and blending.") Or when he saw other brands promote recycled polyester-a fabric made of plasticas a sustainable option. Or when the toxic chemicals involved in indigo dye production became untenable to him. ("There are rivers in China that are blue," he says, because regulations of what's dumped into them there are even laxer than in the States.)

Shafer was at his wit's end when he and his wife, Lauren, sold Agave, a jeans and T-shirt brand, in 2016. Being in the clothing business felt like working in clean coal. "I just didn't see any point in it," he says.