7 cult-favorite brands that don't exist anymore
the good news? you can still shop them secondhand.
Good morning! Zohran’s mayoral win has me feeling like it’s a new season of our collective TV show and finally shit is about to change for the better. How are we dopamine dressing today?! :)
A few weeks ago, I was going about my day when I experienced a “popcorn thought”—those random little memories that seemingly POP! out of nowhere in your brain.
I thought about the Mara Hoffman popcorn dress.
Remember her? The stretchy, brightly colored bodycon dresses that flooded your feed during the pandemic?
At a few hundred a pop, perhaps you considered spending a part of your $600 stimulus check on one…only to remember you had nowhere to wear it, and it would be wiser spent on ingredients for shallot anchovy pasta (jumpscare, I know).
The dresses were made of that nubby, asbestos-textured fabric reminiscent of Y2K crop tops. For the newly minted class of waistband-averse fashionistas in 2020, its comfort was a large part of its appeal. Costume designer Sarah Hinkley summarized the cultural moment best:
“the Mara Hoffman popcorn dress is the Hervé Léger bandage dress for hot Brooklyn 30-somethings making their way through the pandemic wedding backlog.”
It was an immediate hit among the slow fashion-Noihsaf Bazaar set, and by the time Beyonce posted a photo wearing a mini popcorn dress in summer 2021, the dress had broken into mainstream appeal. I wanted one. You wanted one. We all wanted one!!!!
In a fit of popcorn dress fever, I actually did buy one back in 2021 off eBay for $300-something, and regrettably have not worn it very much. So, I went raccoon mode in my closet and dug up my popcorn dress and tried it on.
Mara Hoffman ceased operations last year. I have not been able to find this specific dress secondhand since a few were in circulation in the early 2020s. The thought of selling this dress has crossed my mind, but I back out every time. Maybe it's because I can't let go of the lost optimism the dress represents: a time when a wave of fashion brands were unapologetically colorful and their efforts toward inclusivity were more apparent.
Future generations will point to the popcorn dress on textbooks holograms and say, “this is a rare artifact that pre-dated the milkmaid dress era,” and for that, I can’t let it go.
This got me thinking about all the beloved brands that closed in the past decade (give or take).
So I asked readers on Substack and Instagram to find out which brands left the biggest holes in your hearts, and curated my favorite secondhand finds from each brand.
A sneak peek of the 40 summer-appropriate pieces below the fold:
