Paola Hernandez takes a full-moon approach to sustainability

Mexican-American designer Paola Hernandez is far from your traditional fashion designer story. Hernandez studied philosophy in college because she was trying to find and understand her purpose in life. Her original focus was writing, reading, and research. Toward the end of her studies, she realized her real passion was creating things.

She had an idea for a skirt she wanted to wear, so she went to her friend who knew how to use a sewing machine to help her make it. The first day she wore the skirt, three women stopped her on the street to ask where she got the skirt. When Hernandez said she made it, they began begging her to make them skirts too. She eventually obliged, and thus her career as a fashion designer was born.

Paola Hernandez is a Mexican-American designer on the rise

Hernandez decided she needed to further her education in fashion, so she went to Central Saint Martins in London to focus on technical aspects of design. She eventually decided to name her brand after herself because she felt it was reminiscent of how artists sign their work.

After graduating from Central Saint Martins, she went back to Mexico City and started showing her collections at Mexico Fashion Week. “When I started showing with my fellow designers, it felt like we were like a movement in fashion making changes that hadn’t been seen in Mexico before,” Hernandez said to FashionUnited. “Fashion started becoming more global and there was more focus on independent designers. I had a community of designers in Mexico that felt powerful.”

When she decided to advance her career, Hernandez moved to New York City because she saw that the fashion industry here was more established, rather than still emerging like in Mexico. “Being in New York has allowed me to focus,” Hernandez said to FashionUnited. “I started doing knitwear a few years ago and got more involved in the process of making sweaters. During the pandemic lockdown, I took some classes with a professor at Parsons, and I learned how to use a knitting machine too.”

Hernandez learned to sew by hand from her grandmother as a child, so she described taking this class as bringing back her childhood skills. She said that her early design inspirations came from music, especially rock’n’roll. She also found many of her own ideas during meditation and yoga practice. To this day, she describes her moments of silence as when her favorite ideas come to her.

While many designers take either an aggressive direct-to-consumer or wholesale approach to their business models nowadays, Hernandez took neither. She grew her business very organically. She found customers showing at Mexico Fashion Week shows and showing her pieces at pop-ups and art galleries. When she moved to New York, many of her contacts in Mexico became her bridge in New York to find new customers.

Sustainability is key to Hernandez’s design approach, and rather than design seasonal collections, she does drops in relation to the moon. Every full moon she releases one or two new products, some produced in Los Angeles, others with artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico, and some she designs herself. She started taking this approach during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and it has stuck.

“I wanted to take an approach that was in touch with the moon, and femininity of the moon, rather than doing clothes two seasons per year,” Hernandez said. “This way, pieces can build off each other, they can match together or be worn as separates. Customers responded well to that. This approach goes more with my pace. Fashion can often feel rushed and frantic, and that energy is so opposite to mine. My pace feels sustainable and natural to me.”

Hernandez focuses on using very sustainable materials, including unbleached yarns. She dyes her yarns with botanical dyes, which are much more eco-friendly.

Most of Hernandez’s business is direct-to-consumer, although she does sell in one store in Sag Harbor. Her goal is to increase her brand awareness and build her direct-to-consumer model. She’s a star on the rise, and one to watch.