According to Jennifer Evans (pictured), “We’re in talks with all big brands feeling the pressure of sustainability, or the need to do something new and fresh, and we offer a service outside their normal production process.”

We must periodically remind ourselves that fashion at its highest is an art form. It’s easy to forget that when, say, you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, but the art of apparel still lives on the red carpet—not to mention the minds of designers who create garments showcased at such events.

But it’s one thing to imagine art and another thing to manifest it, which is why there’s patternmaking and production. And for 20 years The Evans Group has been turning the most fanciful fashions from ideas into reality and is presently preparing to unveil a new set of complex designs through its recent collaboration with the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

The California Apparel News caught up with Evans Group founder Jennifer Evans to learn more and discover what else is happening in the world of high-end, small-run apparel production.

2025 is off to a roaring start. What’s your strategy for navigating these uncertain times?

I always personally make it my mission to come out stronger. It’s what we did during the recession and COVID, so we’re looking at the tariff situation as an opportunity and are excited about the increase in demand for nearshoring. I started the company as a social enterprise geared toward making year-round living-wage jobs for garment workers and creating a space for independent emerging designers, so I feel like this could be our moment. We were always geared toward doing those things that China could not do.

That’s luring some very big clients your way.

Yes, we’re getting a huge uptick in work from established brands through their high-profile collaborations, which they’re also increasingly looking to do domestically because of the tariff situation. For the past few years we’ve been working with Nike on its collaborations, which come from dead-stock goods we’re upcycling into new designs. We’re in talks with The Gap, Lily Pulitzer, Everlane—all big brands feeling the pressure of sustainability, or the need to do something new and fresh, and we offer a service outside their normal production process.

How did your collaboration with the CFDA come about?

When we began, I liked to say we were the anti-T-shirt factory; we wanted to promote complex design because no one else wanted to do it. Since COVID and the rise of streetwear, activewear and loungewear, that’s really declined, but we decided to double down on designers doing high-end clothing lines, so we created this project with the CFDA, asking them to hit us with their most complex couture. They solicited their members, and we selected the winners based on their submitted designs and dedication to artisanal, sustainable and high-end design practices. We looked for the most standout styles, the most unique designs we could bring to life to show off our skills, and announced the winners in January: Spencer Phipps, Batsheva Eadan, Charles Harbison, Kate Burton and Elena Velez.

How will their creations be unveiled?

Burton and Velez will be showing at New York Fashion Week in their runway shows. Eadan is looking to add a new category to the line, as yet a secret, and will be using what we’re making to introduce it. Phipps is based in Los Angeles and does high-end denim. Harbison is also an L.A. designer who does very complex designs. We’re doing a couture gown and a finely tailored jacket gown. He was floored to learn that he could get this level of patternmaking here in Los Angeles. We’ll be doing three designs for him spaced throughout the year, not tied to a specific show. The point of the collaboration was to support these designers in their creative endeavors while also showing our own capabilities and skill with even the most complex designs.

While regular clothing may be growing ever more casual, the counterbalancing energy is a kind of anything goes—almost outrageous creativity such as what we saw recently at the Met Gala. Since you began as the anti-T-shirt factory, it must be encouraging to know there’s still an avant-garde spirit in the age of athleisure.

Exactly, and that’s precisely the energy we were trying to capture with the CFDA collaboration. We’re also laying the groundwork to open a studio in New York to better service those kinds of designers doing avant-garde styles. It’s nice to have what we started on authentically come back in fashion.