“Now is the time to be brave.” New Zealand label Maggie Marilyn, helmed by founder and designer Maggie Hewitt, posted on Instagram on November 4th accompanied by a one-minute video announcing the brand’s new direction: no stockists, no wholesalers, no sales. “We will design slowly and mindfully, ensuring everything we produce is traceable and organic or repurposed,” the caption read, going on to explain that the seasonal fashion model is created to encourage consumption, with sales prompting consumers to believe that clothing devalues over time. From now on, Hewitt wants to do things differently.

Within two years of graduating in 2015, Hewitt was selling her designs through more than 70 international stockists. The incredible pace at which her company grew meant that though he was making waves in the industry both locally and internationally, she found it hard to keep track of both her consumer and her brand mission. “I think we got stuck on this hamster wheel,” she explains. “I got into this industry because I wanted to make a difference. But it was almost like I had to play the game in order to be able to attempt to change it. Once I really understood the mechanics of how it all worked, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really corrupt and really not right.’” Hewitt’s referring to the optics brands and stores would project, vs what was really a priority behind the scenes. She found that though retailers were drawn to her message, a lot of the time it was their solution to ticking the sustainability box, rather than the makings of a partnership born out of a shared belief of creating a better future. “I got to my fifth season in Paris selling the collection and I felt like I was just screaming inside a glass box,” she says. “I felt so much frustration realising that the wholesalers I was speaking to still really didn’t give a shit. I wanted to know what we could be doing to amplify our mission and how we were going to educate consumers, but in return I had one of the biggest stores in the world say, ‘This just isn’t important to us right now.’ This isn’t important to you? What do you mean? We’re literally in a climate emergency.”

Hewitt is now working to realign and reverse her inventory ratio from 80 per cent seasonal collections and 20 per cent Somewhere, to 95 per cent Somewhere and five per cent Forever capsules – small seasonless collections that she’ll release whenever she thinks her consumer is missing something – opting out of the seasonal trend cycle and constant production and showing her customers that clothing doesn’t – and shouldn’t – devalue over time. It’s a brave move for someone who’s revenue has been wholesale-based since inception, but Hewitt stands by it: “Fashion is inherently supposed to be such an innovative industry. It’s a creative industry, but the way it operates as a business model is just so unprogressive ,” she muses. “We’ve been doing things the same way for the past 100 years. Business and entrepreneurship in its truest form has always been about questioning things, disrupting and trying to find a better way of doing things.”

Of course, Hewitt knows it’s easy for a small, relatively new brand to point the finger at huge well-established companies, who have a lot more hoops to jump through when it comes to implementing new practises. “I’m not naive to the fact that these big department stores can’t just turn the ship around overnight,” she says. “But for me, integrity is a really important word. With a lot of our retailers, it really felt like there wasn’t an intent to do the right thing. I think if I could have seen that there was, maybe there could have been a way to salvage some of the relationships, but for the likes of a lot of our big department stores, it really was just about selling a story to get more customers in the door, as opposed to actually believing in that story,” she explains. “There was a lack of integrity and we just couldn’t do it anymore. That’s against everything we stand for – we don’t just sell the story of using fashion to create a better world, we really want to make the world a better place.”

All things sustainability aside, it’s just smart business to implement practices that are good for both the planet and the people living on it. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, and consumers are now taking more notice than ever before, but because governments are not going to be able to ignore the climate crisis for much longer. “It’s actually the only thing to do if you want to be here in 10, 20, 30 years time,” Hewitt, who sees the likes of carbon taxes and fees for importing non-organic cotton in our near future, says. “I do think that soon there’ll be a carbon tax and you’ll have to pay to pollute. I just think you’re setting yourself up for the future if you are already implementing these things into how your business operates and it’s part of your margin.”

When we touch on the year that’s been, and how the climate emergency has taken a backseat to the pandemic, US election and race reckoning, Hewitt and I begin to speak about how issues can seem too large and terrifying to tackle when you look at them too broadly. People can become paralysed with the sheer immensity of what needs to be done and, instead of facing the issues, often end up looking away. But when you bring it down to what you can do, as an individual – whether that’s shopping at your local farmer’s market instead of supermarket, buying from local-owned businesses and supporting companies who share your values, you really can make a difference. “Sometimes fashion seems like a frivolous place to start,” Hewitt says. “But really, fashion is such a conduit for so many different industries – everyone buys clothes, so everyone partakes in fashion in some way. If we can be a big enough player in fashion, hopefully we can inspire other industries to be more circular in how they operate…. and then you really can change the world.”

^{SIDE-NOTE acknowledges the Eora people as the traditional custodians of the land on which this project was produced. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this.}