Can a designer’s sustainability efforts ever be enough? Is there a point where there’s just nothing left to do, no further improvements to make? It’s tempting to think so—and plenty of designers will have you believe they’ve gotten there. In reality, it’s not yet possible to be 100% sustainable, to check every box on materials, packaging, shipping, labor, traceability, emissions, and so on. That’s one reason Maggie Hewitt (and many of her peers) has lately avoided describing her brand as sustainable at all; instead, she says, she’s “using fashion to create a better world.” Hewitt doesn’t sugarcoat her progress or suggest her business doesn’t make an impact; it’s all a work in progress.
Still, she’s certainly ahead of the pack. One of the pleasures of Hewitt’s collections is that sustainability is such a given, you can just focus on the clothes. It’s no longer a novelty that she uses organic cotton, FSC-certified viscose, and regenerative wool, nor that she shares the journey of how her garments are made. Flipping through her new-arrivals section, you don’t have to double-check if a silky butterscotch mini is secretly polyester; not only is it 100% silk, it was sourced from a deadstock supplier. Ditto a chocolate poplin gown, which stands out for its dramatic yet dressed-down feeling, not the fact that it’s made from organic cotton.
That means the real takeaway of Hewitt’s pre-fall collection, which debuted today as part of Australian Fashion Week, was simply its sense of exuberance. Several dresses came in a surprising sparkly gold gingham (organic cotton flecked with Lurex, for the record), alongside more familiar puffed-sleeve numbers in butterscotch and cerulean silk. Last season’s move toward narrower, sexier silhouettes continued here with a few curve-hugging ruched dresses and silk bralettes, but Hewitt is predicting a return to distinctive tailoring too. A lemon suit and an ivory vest-and-trouser combo looked destined for a dinner party, not the office.
In lieu of a runway show, Hewitt filmed a happy, flower-filled dinner party in a Byron Bay forest with a cast of models and friends dressed in the new collection. The concept was inspired by a photo she found last year depicting a dinner party in a lush vineyard; from the setting to the sunset colors to the mere act of gathering with friends, it was aspirational in more ways than one.
The film opens with a model running through an endless forest, arms out, her peony pink coat flapping behind her. The sense of unbridled freedom will move you first, then the lively coat will. Hewitt pointed out that it’s made of strong wool, not New Zealand’s more famous (but less abundant) merino, to support local herders. Demand for the fiber has dipped as synthetics rise in popularity, but Hewitt grew up with the stuff; her dad’s strong-wool barn jackets are decades old and provided the inspiration for pre-fall’s oversized versions. In addition to being New Zealand’s main export, strong-wool sheep play a huge role in keeping the country’s land and soil healthy, and Hewitt hopes to educate her customers (and her peers) about its importance. All that said, she was just as excited about the coat’s bright, joy-sparking hue; in New Zealand, Australia, and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, post-pandemic reemergence is coinciding with the onset of winter, and a mood-lifting coat feels undeniably right.
