The Wear: Fashion Forward

Nobody did boho-chic better than Mara Hoffman. The Brooklyn, NY native practically invented the term. Over a quarter century—at least three lifetimes in fashion years—Hoffman built her eponymous fashion label into one of the most recognizable, beloved independent brands in the industry. 

But in 2023, she made the difficult decision to put it all on pause. While she still owns a townhome in Williamsburg, the designer now spends the bulk of her time in Stormville, a hamlet tucked in the woods between Beacon, NY and the Connecticut border. I caught up with Hoffman to learn more about what she’s been up to in the past couple of years. 

“I started my business the summer I graduated from Parsons [School Of Design in New York City],” she says. “It really defined me, and for so long I lived my life through being a brand.” Over time, the daily strain of running and scaling a company—especially one committed to sustainable, ethical production and without outside investment—began to weigh heavily. I was living with the same scarcity mindset over and over. The compromises I would’ve had to make in order to keep going after the pandemic…I just couldn’t.”

Like so many city dwellers, Hoffman made the move to the Hudson Valley in the midst of the global pandemic. Living closer to nature ultimately gave her clarity, she says. Hoffman placed her son in a local school, she and her husband started to find community and suddenly, and gradually, she says her husband and her found a sense of community they’ve been missing which gave her the clarity to ask herself the ultimate question about her career in fashion: Should she stop? The answer, she reveals, was a resounding ‘yes.’

“I started my business the summer I graduated from Parsons School Of Design in New York City. It really defined me, and for so long I lived my life through being a brand.” 

After some additional soul-searching, Hoffman says she wound down her business in early 2023, publicly announcing the closure in May. She ensured that the end of her fashion business was done with integrity—taking months to wrap operations and hold final sample sales for her most devout followers. Now, all that remains of her brand is a small storage unit with a few dozen boxes.

But don’t get it twisted, fashionistas: Hoffman has done anything but disappear. She has taken this new direction to reimagine a creative life on her own terms. A longtime member of and mentor through the Council Of Fashion Designers Of America (CFDA), Hoffman has continued her ad hoc mentoring work through serving—what she calls a “creative doula”—advising any and all young fashion brands who seek her counsel. 

Hoffman says she’s also gearing up to launch a new website for sharing and highlighting her photography—a passion project rooted in years of shooting her brand’s campaigns herself, as well as a renewed interest in pictures inspired by her current life in the woods. “People knew the clothes, but they didn’t know I was behind the lens, too,” Hoffman says. “Photography has always been a love of mine.”

Hoffman’s relationship to fashion may have changed but her creative practice continues to deepen, from the tranquil woods of Stormville outward. As she tells me, there’s a legit liberation in ending things—and sometimes, stepping away is the most powerful way to begin again.