What Herderin seeks to continue developing is a de-fashioning approach to clothing design that deepens the human experience beyond visual feedback that’s embedded in cultural and social institutions that misguide the awareness of humanity’s natural sense of self. In doing this, we seek to decolonize fashion by creating clothing research and design approaches that bridge the gap between sustainability and cultural change.

In order to do this, Herderin’s mission is to create intersectional, artisinal knowledge that can be built upon for future generations in order to shift away from the dominant framework of fashion design education, where sociological- and psychological theories of the human history and lifelong relationship to clothing are absent. A major component to our practice is also working by hand in- stead of using computer software. We believe that clothing is too sensual of an object to make uniform and scalable. Instead, we seek to make clothing personal. Every garment is single-tailor made, as we believe that each piece should feel like a gift more than a factory-made object.

Today, we consider Herderin an auto-ethnographical research and design studio, and we strongly oppose the titles of “brand” and “fashion designers.” Though we are principled in our ethos, we never want to be dogmatic. Flexibility matters, and so does staying open to change and discovery.

The Herderin studio is located in San Rafael, California as of 2020.