What sets WE-AR4 apart

WE-AR4 is a New York-based responsible fashion brand focused on immediate sustainable impact, founded in 2021. We are fashion industry veterans who believe that responsibility to the planet is an obligation, not an option. We tap our decades of combined experience to rethink the traditional fashion system. Our approach is to reinvent the process from the inside out, crafting our designs from surplus materials and leathers commissioned by other luxury fashion houses and left unused.  By doing so, we create a direct path to climate-positive impact, finding a new life for materials that would otherwise become waste.

Today almost 100% of our collection is crafted by upcycling existing raw materials (aka “deadstock”) in the supply chain. By choosing WE-AR4, customers are taking direct and immediate action to mitigate climate change. (The impact is huge as up to 70% of the production carbon footprint comes from producing virgin raw materials that go into garments and accessories.) Sustainability is at the core of our business model.

The materials we work with are surplus materials and leathers commissioned by other luxury fashion houses and left unused.  Such overproduction is common practice in the traditional fashion system. To evolve an industry we love, we source directly from the finest European mills and world-class factories to access this deadstock. With that as the starting point of our collections, we flip the design process on its head creating intelligent designs from existing luxurious materials.

Now consumers do not have to compromise between style and climate responsibility. We offer beautifully made wardrobe essentials crafted using truly responsible and sustainable methods. Our collection of refined, high-quality time-less pieces are thoughtfully designed to be worn again and again.

For WE-AR4 circularity is at the core of our business model as our products start with using unclaimed idle raw materials that already exist. We are putting already produced, commissioned by other brands, textiles and leathers back into circulation by upcycling deadstock. Additionally, WE-AR4 styling is done with “thrifted” vintage pieces that are offered for sale on our website @RE-AR4.  In the future, we will complete the circle by expanding RE-AR4 to allow our customers to resell WE-AR4 purchases.

All designs are authentically considered and have the utmost integrity. We believe this coupled with honest transparency is the secret to our success. We believe in bringing our customers inside the system to see the units in circulation, material performance information, and what mill the deadstock was rescued from, the year it was produced and how many years it lay dormant. This information can be found for each style on our website in the “Material Tracker”.