Redefining Responsible Fashion
Intelligent Design. Uncompromising Style. Effortless Curation.
Our Responsibility
Planet Responsibility is a universal obligation, not an option. It is essential to the future of fashion.
WE-AR4 is the immediate solution. We repurpose luxury deadstock and upcycled materials. The result is thoughtfully designed, elevated essentials that deliver immediate, climate-positive impact and style customers love.
The Brand
WE-AR4 is a New York-based responsible fashion brand with a global mindset, founded in 2021. We are fashion industry veterans who believe that responsibility to the planet is an obligation, not an option. We recognize the industry has reached a moment that demands collective change. We tap our decades of combined experience to rethink the traditional fashion system. Our approach is to turn the process on its head, crafting our designs from luxury deadstock and upcycled materials sourced directly from world class European mills. By doing so, we create a direct path to climate-positive impact, finding a new life for materials that would otherwise become waste. Where others see an obstacle, we see an opportunity to evolve an industry we love, and to give customers responsible choices that they love.
The Mission
To Redefine Responsible Fashion by inspiring change in how the fashion industry produces and consumes raw materials. We believe in engineering a new fashion system where upcycling deadstock becomes the new norm. We hope to empower customers to invest in a more sustainable future.
Message from the Co-Founders
We love fashion. The clothes, the creativity, the curation, the art of personal style. It’s why we’ve worked in the industry for a combined 50 years.
WE-AR4 is driven by this love and powered by our decades of experience working for world-class brands with visionary creative talents. We have founded a brand that places impact at its core while also making timeless, high-quality products that you want to wear over and over. Products that become a staple in your wardrobe. Products that seamlessly weave into your individual style.
The most direct path to sustainability is to buy what makes your heart beat a little faster and to wear it for as long as you can. Our ready-to-wear and handbags give you a head start. By using excess materials, our products have a significantly lower carbon footprint than the same product made in the traditional way. (Making the material—weaving, dyeing, tanning—can account for up to 80% of a new product's greenhouse gas emissions.)
In addition to using excess materials, we try to make responsible choices every step of the way. You can read more about these efforts on our site.
We are grateful for our production partners who have inspired and supported us in this challenging yet incredibly fulfilling opportunity. And we are grateful for you, our customer.
Our journey together starts now.
Anna Bakst & Michele Rutigliano
August 30, 2021
