Interview: Designer Mara Hoffman on Sustainability in Fashion
In early March, fashion designer Mara Hoffman was the first-ever recipient of Unifi's "Leading the Change" award. The honor recognized her ongoing work in the sustainable fashion space, where she has been a leader for the past several years. As a designer whose colorful bohemian clothing is beloved by everyone from fashion insiders to casual shoppers, her mission to make clothing more conscious has been extremely important. Not only is fashion currently one of the [dirtiest industries in the world], lack of supply-chain transparency has led to unethical manufacturing processes and disconnection between customers and where their garments come from.
In 2015, Hoffman decided to use her brand to focus on mindful consumption habits, while maintaining an ethereal, high-fashion vibe. Since then, she has begun using organic, recycled, and regenerated materials. And she's made changes to ensure her manufacturers adhere to international labor standards, looked at sustainability in fashion as an evolving issue that constantly needs to be talked about.
To find out more about sustainability practices within the Mara Hoffman brand and the industry at large, we talked to the designer about how she's making a difference and why it's so important.
Teen Vogue: What is the Champion of Sustainability "Leading the Change" award, and what does it mean for you to be recognized for your work in sustainability?
Mara Hoffman: I was honored to be the first recipient of Unifi’s “Leading the Change” Champions of Sustainability Award. We are so grateful to be acknowledged among peers. But I also recognize that an award does not mean that we are at an endpoint with our sustainability efforts; there is no finish line. There is so much more work to do in the fashion industry and I hope that this award inspires other brands to work toward kinder business practices and more sustainable methods of production.
TV: What have been some of the biggest challenges for you in doing this?
MH: Materials and manufacturing cost more when you start to implement more sustainable, i.e., less harmful, practices, so your price points jump. When we first made the shift, the higher price tags made it tough to persuade some of our buyers and customers to embrace the change with us. We do not need to do as much convincing today, but we still have to be very careful with how we spend our budget. For instance, fabric minimums tend to be higher for sustainable materials, so we are constantly navigating that.
Aspects of design can also become more challenging. Your choice of fabrics is limited if you are only using sustainable materials. We also needed to adjust the way we approached our patterns to ensure that we are producing the least amount of waste within each garment. This outside-the-box thinking is what leads to more creative options. I would be remiss not to mention a personal challenge, which is the fact that we are still manufacturing new things. I am often uncomfortable about putting more product into the world. I try to find resolve in knowing that we are producing clothing in the kindest way we possibly can at the moment.
TV: How would you explain the importance of brands like yours making steps to become more ethical and sustainable to someone who isn't well versed in what that means?
MH: It is impossible to ignore the connection between human actions and the environmental disasters that you see on the news almost every single day. The apparel industry is a huge contributor to this devastation. Brands implementing more sustainable practices are trying to reverse this trend so that future generations do not inherit a ruined planet.
It is not as simple as saying that by wearing sustainable clothes the planet will be saved, though; it goes much deeper than that. With all of the challenges in most people’s daily lives, it is often a luxury to have the time to think about sustainability and buy sustainably. While we want to educate and generate awareness of the industry’s more eco-aware and socially responsible options, it is up to the brands to make these shifts -- fast fashion, slow fashion, all fashion -- to make sustainable options accessible to all people.
TV: What do you wish you could be doing more of in the sustainability space and what steps are you taking to do that?
MH: There is so much more we could be doing, but two of our ultimate goals are to have total transparency across our supply chain, and to create a circular model. Some of the steps we take to work toward these are continuously visiting and mapping out our factory partners to better understand our supply chain. As for circularity, we try to design for longevity; we are creating a garment take-back program, and we support technology and innovation of textile recycling. We have a long way to go, but for us, it’s always been about small steps.
I am also doing more to understand and address the systemic issues that are at the root of many problems we encounter in the fashion industry. There are not just environmental concerns in this industry; social injustice is rife, and the two are not mutually exclusive. We continue to look at the role we play in fashion on both fronts and re-evaluate our involvement by confronting, understanding, changing, and growing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
