The Prelude:
Maybe it’s just me, but whenever someone said, “never say never” I would always role my eyes and think “ya, sWhen I was a child, my older sister and I shared a best friend. Tonia, who’s dad lived next door to us at the time, would come to visit every other weekend. And while she was meant to spend time with her dad, he graciously allowed us to steal all of her attention. Tonia was just between Camilla and I in age, which made her the perfect co-best friend to both of us (makeup, boys and MTV with Camilla, Pokémon and Rugrats with me). The three of us always had a blast hanging-out and we would always find something to do together (say, for example, rolling down the steep driveway on an office chair).
During our 'younger days', we would sometimes play ‘House’ (I’m sure you’re all familiar with it). Camilla would always play the mom, Tonia would play some other adult (don’t really remember what, to be honest) and I, as the youngest, would play the baby. As the role play started, Camilla and Tonia would place two chairs together to create a ‘crib’ for me to ‘sleep in’. They would then say, “OK baby, time to take a nap!” and then leave. I would lay there in my ‘crib’ waiting for them to wake me up from my ‘nap,’ wondering what they were doing without me. It took a few times for it to sink in that this role-play was just a ploy to get me out of the way so that they could be ‘cool’ and watch MTV without me nagging them to do something else. And while I didn’t really understand what was so ‘cool’ about these things (playing tag was so much more fun), it felt better knowing and seeing what they were doing than being in the dark.
The Point:
It’s not fun to play a game where the other players are not transparent about their actions (i.e., pretending to play ‘House’ with you when they are trying to get rid of you to watch MTV).
In the same way, it can feel just as disappointing when a brand isn’t transparent about their products and practices. Most of the time, we don’t even know what we’re buying and how it was made, making us feel trapped in the proverbial chair ‘crib’ (ok, I know it’s not actually proverbial, but it totally should be- it’s a great and relatable story).
There are some brands out there, however, that are opening the curtains on their practices, allowing consumers to make conscious decisions about what they’re buying and how it has been made. Mara Hoffman is not only one of those brands but is, arguably, one the pioneers in reinventing how a brand can communicate transparently with their customers.
To give you a little summary: Mara Hoffman is a womenswear brand that has been around for over two decades. Established in 2000 by its namesake, Mara Hoffman burst onto the retail scene with her bold, eclectic and colorful styles. But by 2015, Hoffman started to question the impact her company was having on the environment and on those making her products. As a result, she and her team began to evaluate how they could implement more sustainable and responsible practices in their product development, while maintaining true to their brand aesthetic.
“In 2015, my son was 3 at the time, my company was on this one trajectory toward this commercial success. And then I really hit a huge wall…What am I leaving this little person, what is the legacy? So…we began turning the wheel.”
-Mara Hoffman, Interview with Net-a-Porter 2020
Today, if you go onto the Mara Hoffman website, you will see a plethora of information on their products and practices: fabric sourcing and material information, packaging and labelling materials, manufacturing and working standards- they even list the names of each factory they work with and which country they are located in.
To give you a specific example, they have shifted their fabrics to more sustainable materials such as organic cotton, linen, hemp and Tencel, and have implemented strict regulations regarding the materials and dyes used in their garments (Partners must be Oeko-Tex® 100 Standard approved, which means that their raw materials have undergone strict testing to ensure no harmful chemicals are used).
What is even more refreshing about Mara Hoffman is how transparent they are about their journey toward becoming a sustainable company. On the issue of designing and manufacturing more sustainable garments they say:
“We know that, as we make improvements, we will always encounter new challenges, and though this road is unending it will forever offer us room to change and grow. The aim is to design and manufacture our clothes with greater care, reduce our impact, and generate awareness. We ask you, our customer, to join us in taking action and holding us accountable.”
But that’s not all (cue flashing 1-800 number), Mara Hoffman has gone one step further in encouraging the sustainability of their products’ life cycle by creating the Full Circle Marketplace. The Full Circle Marketplace is a “dedicated space to buy and sell pre-owned Mara Hoffman garments.” This platform allows an easy place for customers to resell their pre-loved Mara Hoffman clothes, allowing garments to avoid the land fill and begin a new life with a new owner (ahh, I love when clothes get a happy ending).
So, while it can sometimes feel like the “covert” retail game will never change (now cue flashback of lying in a chair ‘crib’ with the faint sounds of TRL in the background), designers like Mara Hoffman are setting the stage, and example, for other brands to have a more transparent and conscious relationship with their customers and with our planet.
See below for some of Camilla’s and my favorite pieces from Mara Hoffman:
Happy trotting,
xxx
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