The most dramatic piece in Mara Hoffman’s spring collection was a melon-sleeve dress with meandering, calligraphic passementerie that traced the female body (emphasizing the breasts particularly) with a Matisse-like hand. Hoffman is one of many designers surfacing the female form; she also celebrated it with those popular popcorn dresses, shown for spring with a dashing ruffle. But surfaces aren’t the only things Hoffman is about; the designer has dug her heels in on the subject of sustainability and, with that, a belief in slow fashion.
Time is a central theme in fashion; the industry motto could be borrowed from Daft Punk: “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” At the moment, Hoffman is feeling pulled in two directions. “There’s an inner kind of clock and voice going, ‘Transform! It’s time to move on, be something else,’” she said at a preview. “And then this other part is like, ‘No, it’s okay to go slow. Take your time, you can’t rush this transformation.’”
Hoffman might be gathering inner strength for her next steps, but she didn’t slouch when it came to the spring collection. Yes, some of the silhouettes and treatments were familiar, but continuity is in line with the values of the brand. The designer said her focus for spring was on “giving vibrancy, attention to detail, and femininity and evolving where there’s room to evolve,” which isn’t a slacker’s agenda. Colored denim is cropping up in the fall collections, and for spring (this brand follows the see-now, buy-now model) Hoffman offered a fitted, sleeveless midi-dress in popsicle red. The idea of a bustier and pants, a modern take on tailoring, also felt right for the times.
