Mara Hoffman: There's an Urgent Need For More Sustainability in Fashion

Published on 6/7/2023 at 7:00 PM

Courtesy of Mara Hoffman

Mara Hoffman didn't set out to start a brand. As an artist who began designing clothes in a New York studio apartment, Hoffman just loved to create. And what she created was an innovative, celebratory way of dressing through color, shape, and sustainable principles. "I don't even know if it was such a conscious thing that I was starting a brand. Even the language of brand didn't even come into our lexicon until 10 years into it, [in] 2010," Hoffman, who founded her namesake label in 2000 after graduating from Parsons School of Design, told POPSUGAR. "Before that I was a designer in my studio apartment. It started with me making one-of-a-kind handmade pieces in my apartment when I graduated from school. I was hand dyeing, boutiquing: it was probably more of an art experiment than a clothing brand really."

But after some time, the former dancer turned her at-home-studio projects into a flourishing clothing line, sold in luxe retailers like Neiman Marcus and Net-a-Porter as well as the designer's SoHo, New York storefront. And she quickly grew a celebrity fan base, including stars like Priyanka Chopra, Chrissy Teigen, Katy Perry, and Beanie Feldstein.

"I don't know if people are going to lose interest in this [sustainability] topic as they see towns being washed away or burned down right now. It's starting to come into people's own homes and backyards, and their experience of life is transforming."

While the designer is no stranger to changes and challenges of the fashion industry, Hoffman explained that her interest in creating sustainable garments came to the forefront nearly a decade into establishing the brand. She credits her sustainable style journey to the change in times, change in conversations, and a stronger sense of awareness. "Back in the first 12 years of this experiment, that language wasn't there. In the early 2000s, the word sustainability did not exist in these walls of fashion. It wasn't a conversation, it wasn't on our radar, it wasn't our pain point. We were really still so much in the space of egoic design. Create what you love, that's it. There isn't this responsibility piece to it," she explained.

But in 2015, Hoffman decided to make what she refers to as "the big transformation." "It was following a couple of years, basically coming to into stronger awareness. The [sustainable] language was very quietly and lightly slipping into the fashion space, but it definitely wasn't a popular conversation," she said. "I think that I would try and push it away a little bit until it just became so loud and so much yuck around it that I was forced, on an internal and spiritual level, to change."

Eight years later, not only is Hoffman's brand a household name, but the designer takes pride in having made an impactful change through the use of sustainable materials, processes, and production to extend the life cycle of a garment — ultimately, to help improve the environment around us. And she hopes other designers will follow suit and continue to make sustainability a priority, especially considering how climate change is impacting our day-to-day lives. "I don't know if people are going to lose interest in this [sustainability] topic as they see towns being washed away or burnt down right now," she said. "It's starting to come into people's own homes and backyards, and their experience of life is transforming. I can't imagine it being that they're going to not feel a deeper correlation to the experience. It's just speeding up right now. We thought it was going to be pushed off, and it's the next generation's experience, but it's our experience."

Below, read more about Hoffman's journey with her namesake line and what she believes the future of sustainable fashion holds.

How Sustainability Impacts Her Design Process

POPSUGAR: Once you did adapt this sustainable way of looking at fashion and designing, how did that impact your design process? Do you start out with the materials you want to use or the concept?

Mara Hoffman: Part of our approach to design in our systems is a really narrowed fabric library. Each season, it's really just about trying to be more creative with the same stuff. There's definitely tons of innovation that have happened in these past eight years, and there's incredible options out there, but we're very dedicated to really knowing fully, and feeling really sure about anything that we're doing. It gives a much smaller selection. From that design point, again, we know that we have six materials we're working with, and that's where you begin.

The design process is probably different than in a lot of spaces, or a lot of design houses. You've got to be really creative with less, and I think about this too, it can't be just whatever feels good. I want everything to be an answer to something. It doesn't mean [a shirt] has to solve the climate crisis but it has to not be just a frivolous add in.

It has to make sense, and it has to [have a] purpose within the lineup. I am deeply committed to the environmental and the science parts of how we can do better as a material making company, but there's also an emotional thing that's happening one level under. I feel probably my strongest point of why I'm here is to help people feel better through an exchange of beauty, and an up-level of emotion.

On Building a Baseline Wardrobe You Can Wear Again and Again

PS: One way that people are trying to be a little bit more sustainable is up-cycling, repurposing, and re-wearing. Do you have a design that you always go back to, or something in your current collection that you would just consistently wear all the time, and it will always be versatile?

MH: I personally am a uniform dresser. I am in the same outfit I was in yesterday. I wear the same stuff all the time, and I wear the same aesthetic all the time. It just makes so much sense for me.

For the line, we have what we call our Core Collection and these are the styles that we're running every season, over and over. Ultimately, it's about bringing more attention to that part of the brand, because it is really about giving people that baseline wardrobe, and helping to re-shift this idea of how we wear clothes, and how often we wear clothes, and what it means to wear the same things a lot.

For me, it's the Adele top. It's made of hemp, it's a white button down, and everybody in the office has that top. It is my favorite white button down. You begin to live in that. We have our denim now: the Georgina jeans and the Monte pants. I want to make it easy for you to get dressed, and [make it] that you feel good — and that and that you have these uniform core pieces that you're just known for wearing.

How She Practices Sustainability in Her Personal Life

PS: Apart from practicing sustainability within your collections, how do you further apply that mentality just to your everyday life?

MH: I have the luxury of an entire clothing brand, so I don't need to go out and buy myself clothing. I am a huge vintage fan, so if I am going for other things, I love vintage. [As for] my lifestyle, I am big fan of the metro north. I live in deep harmony in nature, that's really essential. Also, the planetary rebalance, I believe, is re-forming a relationship with nature.

I don't say that without recognizing the immense privilege I have to be in proximity to nature, because I get that isn't just granted to every human being. Unfortunately, it's something that is associated with some level of privilege, to be able to hang out with trees. It should be our birthright as human beings to be in connectedness. If we had built our systems and our society more equitable, and not the way that we have, our planet would be also in a very different situation.

On Sustainable Fashion Going Beyond Just a Trend

Let's take the trend of awareness. Let's take the trend of consciousness, and care, and transformation. You can continue to see that from us. It would be real cool to see that from other people, and hopefully that's a trend that sticks around.

PS: Do you think that this is something that will last, and go beyond just a... I hate to say the word trend, but do you think that this movement towards sustainability itself is sustainable?

MH: I don't see another way out. It has to be. It's hard for me to answer that because I've just been so focused on the same thing for so long. I don't know if people are going to lose interest in this [sustainability] topic as they see towns being washed away or burned down right now. It's starting to come into people's own homes and backyards, and their experience of life is transforming. I can't imagine it being that they're going to not feel a deeper correlation to the experience. It's just speeding up right now. We thought it was going to be pushed off, and it's the next generation's experience, but it's our experience.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Fashion Designers