This Isn’t Goodbye for Mara Hoffman
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Mara Hoffman is a woman who remembers everything.
When we sit down in the sunny Chinatown loft where she has gathered friends together for a photo shoot in honor of her namesake brand, which she recently shuttered, she doesn’t get straight to business. Instead, she asks how I enjoyed my most recent birthday.
She knows I’ve just celebrated it because the last time we met, we discovered our birthdays are just a day apart. And whether you’re an astrology fiend or not, there is an undeniable intrinsic connection that exists between fellow Aries. We are often creative, a bit dramatic (but rightfully so), intensely passionate, and inherently loyal. We’re silent workhorses, too. We hate giving up on anything or anyone that means something to us. It’s because of this I understand the time, intention, and careful consideration that went into Hoffman’s decision to shut down her beloved clothing label after 24 years. The designer described the news in an open letter to her social media followers as “by far one of the hardest” decisions she has ever had to make.
While a number of factors went into Hoffman’s decision to close up shop—including the instability of the fashion industry as a whole and the current mass-production mindset of the shopping landscape—she doesn’t look back on her brand’s tenure with any regret. Over the last quarter century, Mara Hoffman pieces have come to define the times. She’s designed It items like vibrant swimwear, denim trench coats, “popcorn” dresses, and luxe knitwear, all while embracing eco-friendly fabrics (like hemp), fair trade practices, and body positivity and inclusive styling, without ever needing to call it or market it as such. Just last year, she won the CFDA Environmental Sustainability Award for her longtime dedication to building a better fashion industry.
The final photo shoot for the brand, captured by Hoffman herself and exclusively shared here with Harper’s Bazaar, features some of her most loyal New York City friends and customers. In a way, it is an ode to everything she has built.
“This idea of doing this shoot was a way to continue the narrative that this all goes beyond the clothing,” Hoffman tells Bazaar. “If this brand has been anything, it’s been a dedication to women. You could have all these beautiful clothes, but without you and without—this is just a pinch of the women of my life—for me, it’s a way to be in reverence to these stories that stem from these women. It’s a gift to be able to photograph them all.”
This project is an ode to Hoffman’s legion of loyalists. Industry peers, artists, actors, and even some of her own family (like her mom!) all trekked to her studio to take part and pay their respects to one of New York’s most adored designers, this editor included.
Hoffman was one of the very first designers I invested in during my 20s, having seen so many of my personal style inspirations often sharing and posting photos in her pieces. Not once have I had buyer’s remorse after bringing home a dress or a printed set from Hoffman. If anything, I was often thinking about how I could get away with wearing what I had over and over again. Especially in the years leading up to my 30th birthday, when it felt like my body was constantly changing, someway, somehow, my Hoffman pieces always found a way to still work and simply grow along with me. For the shoot, I opted for my very well-loved Sloan maxi dress, which has seen me through cover story celebrations, getting engaged, and more milestones—and I received no fewer than five separate compliments on it from total strangers (including baristas, fellow subway commuters, and grandmothers coming back from a laundry run in Bed-Stuy) while heading to the shoot, testifying to the objective appeal of a Hoffman-engineered garment.
“‘What's next?’ is a hard question, and some of my favorite answers have been ‘Your guess is as good as mine’ or ‘I’m going to float in a salty sea for a while,’ ” the designer tells me, laughing. “I’ve been following a specific strategy for the last 24 years. It’s a phenomenal experiment to do something that you haven’t exactly planned—it’s an act of deep trust. The undertone of everything is that I’m here to serve—I’m here to create art, and I’m here to be with women. The clothes have been this gorgeous translator, and I don’t know if I’ll ever find something as universal [to speak through]. But it’s okay, because I’ve done that work already.”
The gathering for the photo shoot encouraged the participants to reflect on not just their connection to their favorite Mara Hoffman pieces, but also their shared appreciation for the designer herself.
“Her authenticity and hot silhouettes are what brought me to her one afternoon in the early 2000s at a walk-up sample sale in the Lower East Side, where we connected instantly,” fellow designer Ronny Kobo tells me. “Her designs since day one have revolved around the female body, and without fail would bring out a certain movement in you. She is a woman whose art and vision I have loved dearly and consistently throughout my life in New York City.”
Actor and fellow Hoffman fan Beanie Feldstein echoed the importance of the designer’s commitment to unapologetically crafting clothes for women.
“I know I speak for thousands when I say I am devastated Mara is closing shop. Her work is everything we need: inclusive, sustainable, and gorgeous,” the Booksmart star says. “More importantly, she’s a magic person that makes people feel amazing. I have always felt my most amazing in her swim, and so I knew for her final shoot, I had to be brave and rock her gorgeous swimwear.”
For Milk Makeup co-founder Georgia Greville, Hoffman’s clothes maintain an ethereal energy that mirrors the designer’s spirit.
“Mara Hoffman clothes make your femme spirit sing. It’s a divine chorus connecting both ancient and modern archetypes. You are an elevated version of yourself, but somehow, so many other women come through at the same time,” says Greville. “Her clothes transport you into other, more elegant and vivacious versions of yourself you didn’t know existed. Anyone can find their connection to beauty through Mara’s eyes and lens. To be her muse is to dance with life, and to embody beauty.”
Hoffman founded her brand when she was 22. She’s 47 now.
“It took this long to trust myself on this deeper level—this isn’t like a big cash-out,” she says. “I don’t want to wake up one day and you’re pulling [the brand] out of my shriveled hands and I’m clenching the life out of it—I want to leave while the party is still good. Leave while the party is still beautiful! I know I couldn’t have done this [with this mindset] at any earlier part of my life or career. We’re just going to party until the end, and people are going to be like: ‘Can you just leave already?’
“We did major things within those 24 years,” she continues, specifically highlighting the brand’s sustainability efforts. “And those things need to be talked about! They need to be examined and adapted to the industry. It’d be a shame if I wasn’t going out and continuing the conversation by saying, ‘Hey, guys, we have so much work to do here—or you have so much work to do, because I did the work already.’ ”
Hoffman says she’ll miss her small but mighty team. She’ll miss the collaboration. She’ll also, of course, miss the glamour a bit.
“It’s easy to shrink into this idea that beauty equates to frivolity—the making of it all, the beauty of it all. I live for the beauty,” she says. “When I started shooting everything, that gave me so much life to, like, be able to expand the medium and make sure the creative process didn’t end. But really, thinking about how many women I’ve gotten to, directly or indirectly, be a part of their lives and their most special moments …” Hoffman references the countless customers who have gotten engaged, married, or simply celebrated life in her garments, and she begins to tear up at the mention of them all.
“There have even been people who have shared that they had gotten sick and their body changed and they didn’t recognize their body as much anymore,” she says. “But they came home, put on a piece of mine, looked in the mirror, and felt beautiful again. What a beautiful contribution to be able to help people feel at home again.”
The beauty in the unknown is what excites Hoffman the most as she looks ahead to the next chapter of her career.
“I’m excited to explore who I am as an artist, but not in the way where I have to create for so many people. I spent so many years plugging my artistry into a mass sort of thing. Making different things for different people—it’s been such a big version of it,” she says. “Now it’s not who I am creating for, but what am I creating for me? What does that give birth to? Before, I was just creating for me and it birthed into this wonderful world. Now I’ve got to bring it all back. I just think it’s time to define itself again.”
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