If Snapchat’s Spectacles, the metaverse, and Farfetch’s market cap swan dive are precedent, successfully using tech to disrupt the fashion industry is really hard. Even the truly innovative launches, like Ganni’s bacteria-grown cellulose alt-leather jacket created with Polybion and launched at this past summer’s Global Fashion Summit, typically debut before they’re ready to go to market. All that is to say nothing of the greenwashing techniques some brands employ as the lowest-effort way to chase clout for innovation. (We’re looking at you, petrochemical-based “vegan” leather.) Over the past eight years, New York–based designer Mara Hoffman and Dana Davis, her eponymous line’s vice president of sustainability, product, and business strategy, have taken a different approach.
They’ve made steady strides towards educating Hoffman’s consumer base on how to shop with care for the planet—and for the longevity of each popcorn dress, pair of billowy linen trousers, and puff-sleeve cotton sweater. Along the way, Hoffman has eliminated materials whose supply chains don’t live up to her commitment to transparency and sustainability. As much information as one could want about the brand’s manufacturing processes and factories, specs for materials and dyes, and labor standards is online for all to find. There, Hoffman admits that sustainability means different things to different people. It’s apparent that climate welfare means much to her, Davis, and the creative directors, gallerists, and editors who purchase Mara Hoffman clothing. How could it not, when they have spent nearly a decade explaining why it should?
