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.
