THE GREAT. logo

THE GREAT.

Clothing · 9+ locations · Los Angeles, Newport Beach, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Larkspur, NYC

A soft-focus LA womenswear label that looks like the kind of brand private equity usually owns by now. Its founders sold their last company in a buyout in 2012, then funded this one themselves. Both still run it as co-CEOs.

Founder-run

The Big Picture

Genuinely Independent

Emily Current and Meritt Elliott own and run THE GREAT. as co-CEOs, with no outside investor, funding round, or acquisition documented as of August 2026 — a deliberate contrast with the private equity buyout that ended their previous denim brand. The trade-off is transparency: the company names no suppliers, holds no environmental certification, and lists no pay range on its own job postings. Accountability runs to two founders rather than a fund, and almost nothing about how the clothes get made is verified by anyone outside the company.

Let's Get Critical

Local ownership
8/10
Founder involvement
9/10
Worker pay & benefits
5/10
Environmental impact
5/10
Sourcing & labor
6/10

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Company data last updated August 2026

How does one person build and research all this? They don't: here's how it actually works. Verdicts are our opinions, based on the public sources cited above as of August 2026. Spotted something off? or learn more.