What’s Happening: The designer known for colorfully sophisticated womenswear built to last a lifetime is the first in the high-end fashion market to produce and sell a dress made of recycled cotton-polyester blended fabric, thanks to textile innovation company Circ’s proprietary technology for separating and reconstituting blended fibers.

The Download: If Snapchat’s Spectacles, the metaverse, and Farfetch’s market cap swan dive are precedent, successfully using tech to disrupt the fashion industry is really hard. Even the truly innovative launches, like Ganni’s bacteria-grown cellulose alt-leather jacket created with Polybion and launched at this past summer’s Global Fashion Summit, typically debut before they’re ready to go to market. All that is to say nothing of the greenwashing techniques some brands employ as the lowest-effort way to chase clout for innovation. (We’re looking at you, petrochemical-based “vegan” leather.) Over the past eight years, New York–based designer Mara Hoffman and Dana Davis, her eponymous line’s vice president of sustainability, product, and business strategy, have taken a different approach.

They’ve made steady strides towards educating Hoffman’s consumer base on how to shop with care for the planet—and for the longevity of each popcorn dress, pair of billowy linen trousers, and puff-sleeve cotton sweater. Along the way, Hoffman has eliminated materials whose supply chains don’t live up to her commitment to transparency and sustainability. As much information as one could want about the brand’s manufacturing processes and factories, specs for materials and dyes, and labor standards is online for all to find. There, Hoffman admits that sustainability means different things to different people. It’s apparent that climate welfare means much to her, Davis, and the creative directors, gallerists, and editors who purchase Mara Hoffman clothing. How could it not, when they have spent nearly a decade explaining why it should?

Hoffman’s newest launch, the Nyssa dress, asks her customers—already used to paying at least $500 for an evening dress, $300 for a pair of trousers, and $1,000 for a double-breasted wool coat—to put their money where their mouth is. At $1,195, the dress is currently the most expensive style in the brand’s ready-to-wear collection and comes in at $200 more than the next-priciest frock. As the first garment created out of recycled cotton-polyester blended fabric and sold at a luxury price point, it also represents a revolution in fashion tech. Hoffman worked with textile innovation company Circ, which has a patented process for breaking down the blended fabrics many companies use for athleticwear, stretchy jeans, and shirts that can be machine-washed and tumble-dried with abandon. Thanks to Circ’s technology and Hoffman’s long-term vision, they can be separated, re-spun into new fabric, and used for the first time in designer fashion.

In Their Own Words: Hoffman created the Nyssa dress in a limited-edition collection of only 35 garments, and one size is already sold out. When reached for comment, she told Surface: “It feels great! It also feels hopeful and signifies that people want to participate in this piece of history in the making. If they are taking the time to learn about the dress, then yes, they absolutely care about what all of it means. Because this dress sits on the higher end of our price point, our customer is being thoughtful about this investment and they have a deep understanding of what brings value to this dress beyond its aesthetic.”

Surface Says: With Hoffman leading the way, we’re eager to see the rest of the industry actually get serious about the future of sustainable fashion.

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Designing Delicious is produced in partnership with Dorsia, a members-only platform with access to reservations at the most in-demand restaurants in New York, The Hamptons, Miami, L.A., San Francisco, and London.

The sourdough starter brigade rejoiced when Chef Adam Leonti published the cookbook Flour Lab: An At Home Guide to Baking with Freshly Milled Grains. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the Italian restaurant where he serves as Head Chef, New York City’s Cucina Alba, also has a need to knead—churning out fresh focaccia in a Roman oven and milling Pennsylvania-grown wheat right on the premises.

Even the space itself has the warm, comforting feel of a plump loaf of sourdough fresh from the oven, thanks to GRT Architects. Tucked along the High Line on 18th Street, Alba’s interior is sheathed in blonde woods, gauzy draperies, and sculptural banquettes. The menu is dotted with the types of dishes Americans naturally gravitate to when they’re living la dolce vita abroad, such as spaghettini vongole and scampi-style gnocchi studded with shrimp from the Gulf. “My family is from Italy and has been cooking Italian food my whole life,” says New York-born Leonti, who helped open the place in partnership with Prince Street Hospitality. “We’re focusing on those things that we’re familiar with while putting our own twist to make sure it feels like you’re at home in New York at the same time.”

Robert Irwin’s origin story is the stuff of legend. A freewheeling teenager raised in Long Beach who was mesmerized by bebop and claimed to never own a notebook in high school; an avid student of art whose gambling savvy at the racetrack funded an emergent practice of making pared-down paintings that answered metaphysical questions. He turned his back on the art world during the ‘70s to explore the nature of human perception and artmaking beyond the canvas, returning as a pivotal figure of California’s Light and Space movement and mounting ephemeral works that resisted categorization and, he once said, “catch lightning in a bottle.” They range from bisecting rooms with barely-there scrims and placing acrylic columns that were looked through, radically expanding possibilities of what art can be.

His career is captured in “Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling,” a new documentary by director and CineMarfa co-founder Jennifer Lane that debuted at this year’s South by Southwest film festival but had a wide release last week, days before Irwin died at 95. The film offers an in-depth look at his unlikely trajectory, fueled mostly by a compulsion to inquire into human perception and see how art can play with it. Considering that Irwin’s works often existed in minimal material terms and he refused to photograph them, capturing their fleeting magic is easier said than done.

Having been in the business for 25 years now, Workshop/APD runs with the clarity of perspective that only comes from decades of experience. The architecture and interiors firm founded by Andrew Kotchen and Matt Berman has a global portfolio featuring residences, hotels, social clubs, and now, a New York City showroom for the Workshop Collection, their furniture studio’s inaugural launch.

The showroom takes cues from the firm’s approach to residential design: an appreciation for craft and materiality shines through in the form of artwork by Jonathan Prince and Michael Gaillard; studio signatures, like layering light fixtures to preserve a gentle glow no matter the hour, are executed brilliantly and nearly invisible to the untrained eye. It’s all in service to the real star of the show: the 16-piece Workshop Collection fit for the firm’s approach to crafting modern, inviting living spaces.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

How Did a Museum Misplace a $3.7M Rodin Sculpture? [Hyperallergic]

Reported Human Remains in Washington Cave Was Plastic Beer Bong [UPI]

Nearly 200 Bodies Recovered From a Colorado Funeral Home Accused of Improper Storage [NPR]

Greek Army Destroys World War II Bomb Found During Excavation for Luxury Development Near Athens [ABC]

NYC Firefighters Were Unable to Save a Man Trapped in a Jewelry Vault. It Opened on a Timer the Next Morning [Fortune]

Stranded on the Eiffel Tower, a Couple Decide to Wed, With an AP Reporter There to Tell the Story [AP]

Thieves Steal 2 Million Dimes From Tractor Trailer and Only Launder $5K Before Bust [New York Post]

The Elmhurst Hospital has been on the front lines of New York City’s public health crises since the days of yellow fever, typhoid, and, more recently, Covid-19. During the pandemic, the hospital operated at an astounding 230 percent capacity for 18 consecutive months, according to CBS Saturday Morning co-host Jeff Glor, who spoke at this week’s anniversary gala at the American Museum of Natural History. The evening commemorated the hospital’s 190th anniversary, and the crucial support of American Airlines and Hyatt, who partnered to treat the hospital’s 6,000 staff members to vacations to regroup with their families, and Pictures for Elmhurst, which raised $1.5 million during the pandemic. The night featured an exclusive sale of Pictures for Elmhurst prints, along with a special musical performance by Zsela.

When was it? Oct. 25

Where was it? The American Museum of Natural History, New York

Who was there? Diana Markosian, Martin Parr, Paola Kudacki, Michael Arad, Shayna McClelland, Rebekah Bowling, Nazy Nazhand, Sheree Hovsepian, and more.

When: Until Nov. 11

Where: Zilberman Gallery, Miami

What: “Temporal Echoes” brings together works by Omar Barquet and Carlos Aires conveying the complex interplay of human emotions, time, nature, and memory. Following a thread of music, and poetry, the exhibition invites viewers to explore the profound depths of human experience and the enduring quest for meaning.

Avant Arte is a creative marketplace that makes discovering and owning art radically more accessible for a new generation. From Tau Lewis and James Jean to Jenny Holzer, Avant Arte collaborates with leading artists to create limited-edition works, from sculpture editions and NFTs to works on paper and hand-finished screenprints. They are building the world’s largest creative community with more than 2.5 million young art lovers, collectors, and artists.

Surface Says: With its network of emerging and established artists, plus support for Web3 technologies, Avant Arte rises to the occasion of democratizing access to the art market for creators and collectors alike.

Artists are learning how to sabotage AI image generators to fight art theft.

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