An Open Letter About Doing More with Less (and Crying About it).

It’s incredible what a difference one year can make. The pandemic has taught us that, for sure. And as a business owner and designer, all the supply chain issues the industry has faced have been a real-time exercise of going with the flow.

This April, our product launch will look totally different than last year’s—we’ve got ONE restock. That’s it. Compared to the shiny launch of four new styles in 2021 (plus a restock of our beloved Lucille crewneck), 2022 is shaping up to be a year of appreciating all the things that normally come so easily.

Last year was an extremely challenging year for fashion (among, you know, other industries and the general health and well-being of our planet and its people). Specifically talking about fashion, I honestly spent many, many nights in tears trying to navigate the delays in production and materials shortages (and floods!). We literally could not produce anything in our signature hernest fabric this spring because of delays in material supply. And finding deadstock fabrics also proved fruitless because it would mean having to compromise our standards.

So, what’s one to do? Discount to try and stimulate sales? Sacrifice the production standards that we’ve held true to for all these years?

To sum it up in one word: FAAAK!!!

This crossroad before me was actually the perfect shakeup that helped me to realize that, despite the production challenges before me and the heaviness of the world around us all, hernest as a company could adapt and overcome.

So, I leaned into the underpinning values of hernest—namely, that we always encourage our customers to do more with less. It’s why we encourage you to reach into your closet and work with what you’ve got and minimize consumption by only buying key, quality pieces. After all, one of the best ways to help the planet is by diverting from landfills and wearing the heck out of your existing closet.

This is why our spring 2022 launch—a restock no less—is the perfect opportunity to reiterate the importance of shifting away from the fast fashion consumption and wastefulness that has plagued our closets and landfills for so long and instead embrace a more minimalist simplicity.

To promote awareness about doing more with less, we’ll be launching the spring renewal season with lots of inspirational content to help you style older pieces in different ways. This restock is going to launch with styling tips to show you how this one style can work with existing hernest pieces and other staples in your closet. So, you’ll get a glimpse of fresh, new photography that might just help inspire you to take it a bit slower this season…and focus on enjoying what you’ve already got.

So, I’d like to challenge you to take part in this little awareness campaign alongside us to support this environmentally-friendly approach to seasonal style. It’s a fun styling challenge and I hope you’ll share your looks with us on social media, but it’s also a crucial message to share with fellow fashion lovers out there. Chances are you’ve already got all you could possibly need right in your closet, so why not take some time to appreciate your pieces and revisit the joys of working with what you’ve got?

Please do share your styling and tag us on social @hernestproject  

-Cass