QUALITY, WITH SAVINGS

With the deluge of daily email blasts about sales coming from designers, stores and flash sites like Gilt Groupe, plus new, lower-priced designer collaborations for retailers such as Target and H&M born every hour, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by fashion choices and confused about what things really cost.

Enter the Web-only clothing and accessories company Everlane, founded on a less-is-more philosophy of offering a pared-down selection of high-quality men’s and women’s “luxury basics” with very little markup in price. For example, a garment-dyed, Supima cotton T-shirt made in Los Angeles that a designer might sell for $50 in his own boutique costs just $15 on Everlane.com.

While fashion labels and retailers typically mark up prices as much as five times the production cost, Everlane saves money by being an online-only operation and passing the savings on to the consumer, offering items at markups only two to 2 1⁄ times the production

2 cost.

To demonstrate the company’s message of quality at the right price, the Everlane folks, who are based in Los Angeles, hosted an online “at-cost pop-up” deal recently, offering Italian leather belts for $15, which is exactly what they cost to produce with no additional markup.

“[Flash sale sites] Gilt Groupe and Ideeli opened consumers’ minds to the idea that if everyone is putting this stuff on sale, how much does it really cost to make?” said Chief Executive Michael Preysman, who worked at private equity and tech firms before starting Everlane about eight months ago with co-founder Jesse Farmer.

“We’re not going to be the cheapest place in the world,” he said. “We’re trying to do high quality at a price point you’ve never seen before.”

So far, the site sells simple crew and Vneck T-shirts in soft watercolor shades ($15), French terry sweatshirts ($35), striped tote bags ($35), reversible bow ties ($35), belt straps ($30) and buckles sold separately ($10), all with a minimalist appeal similar to that of Japanese brands Uniqlo and Muji. The info graphics on the Everlane site explain the company’s simplified supply chain, which involves production in small factories in California, Texas and New York.

It would seem that Everlane taps into several current cultural conversation points — curation, local sourcing and thrift among them. It’s the opposite of throwaway chic.

“We’re not about fashion or trends. The word we use is ‘taste,’ ” Preysman explained.

Preysman’s challenge is getting this message across to shoppers who cannot touch or try on the items he’s selling. But the early results are impressive. So far, 250,000 have registered on the site.