The inevitable question, then, is whether or not Mara Hoffman’s closure indicates something more insidious about the clothing industry. Can sustainable fashion actually exist and thrive in this environment? Hoffman still thinks so, but hopes her decision is a wake-up call. “I know that there are going to be a lot of people that hold deep disappointment in this and their own connectedness to the pieces, to the brand, to what it stood for,” she said. “But we need to hold the recognition of the fact that there is so much more to do, and if we’re going to have brands like Mara Hoffman that are using everything they can to make some sort of transformation, there have to be different support systems built for it.”
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Hoffman pointed to the fact that for her business to grow, she would have had to make bigger orders and hold larger amounts of inventory, which is something that is fundamentally at odds with her ethos. “I could just keep going and build collection after collection and try to figure out what a department store wants, sit on piles of inventory because this is how the system is.” There is also a lesson here about learning when enough is enough. When too much clothing is just too much. “Everyone knows how to begin things. People are not versed or trained in our culture to end things because we don’t want to end things. And here we are buried in clothes, we’re buried in stuff because we can’t let things die,” she says. “We can’t end.”
The designer will share the news of the brand’s closing via a letter to her customers, collaborators, and team today. In it, she makes clear that the path she chose was still the right one, even if it had to come to an end. “It has been an honor to step into a position of responsibility, to become an example of change in this industry, and show the potential for new systems that are more loving, Earth-centered, and kinder,” she wrote.
In our interview, she elaborated that closing the brand doesn’t mean she’s giving up on sustainability in fashion; rather, she’s saying goodbye to a system. When people inevitably ask her what’s next, she’s OK with not having an answer. “It will forever be the most beautiful fucking love story that I could ever imagine writing,” she said. “I lived in a state of my own expressiveness and creation and got to work with and help and bring forth so much elevation and beauty to many people. I got to work directly with thousands of women and bring them into a version of themselves. I am here to celebrate that and champion and say, please, people, let’s do this work.”