Gabriela Hearst (Q4098)
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Gabriela Hearst is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Gabriela Hearst |
Gabriela Hearst is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
A year ago at this time, Gabriela Hearst was dancing on the Seine with models and members of the Mangueira samba school of Brazil. It was a last hurrah at Chloé, where she spent three years as creative director, leading the French house on an eco-minded journey. While she was there the Richemont-owned brand achieved B Corp status. Today she was back on the Left Bank with her eponymous collection, talking a similar earth-first language and making connections between goddess worship, reverence for Mother Nature, and respect for women.Her show notes were several pages long, with descriptions of looks and the goddesses that inspired them. Leather capes slightly longer in the back than the front were attributed to Diana, the same goddess that Maria Grazia Chiuri was thinking about this season, as it happens. Hecate, the protector goddess and a close associate of Diana in the myths, was a model for the chain closure on a sharply tailored black blazer, while the metal-woven silk used for both a pantsuit and a puff-sleeve dress nodded at Fides, the goddess of faith and trust.Hearst was earnest when she said she believed in the power of prayer. “This is an invocation,” she declared at a preview. But without the press release, there was nothing to give away her muses. The slinky knits, strong tailoring, and romantic dresses are all signatures she’s been refining over the decade since she launched her label. That said, she’s been investing in materials, like the mulberry silk of subtly luxurious hand knits. And she’s also been pushing at the edges, cutting a leather coat and pants with cowboy swagger and launching some truly excellent cowboy boots.The Gabriela Hearst brand is in growth mode, with two stores opening in Japan before the end of the year. Being here in Paris, she could count on the attention of international press and buyers who aren’t making the trip to New York Fashion Week as regularly as they have in the past. She chose the garden of the Hotel Pozzo di Borgo, otherwise known as Karl Lagerfeld’s backyard. That’s a lot to live up to. For the occasion she designed her first high jewelry, and it included a necklace of black silk cord, from which she suspended both a tension-set imperial-jade pendant and a pavé of eight baguette diamonds.
30 September 2024
Gabriela Hearst’s resort lookbook was photographed at Avebury Circle, the UK and the world’s largest stone circle and a pilgrimage site dating to 2850-2200 B.C., making it older than Egypt’s pyramids. Hearst is drawn to such places; she’s New York fashion’s most devoted mystic; she talks unabashedly of witches and warlocks, daring you to raise a doubtful or bemused brow.I happen to love to talk about such things, but even a skeptic can’t deny the serious luxury of her clothes. Hearst is impassioned about materials and insists on the best, prices be damned. The sea island cotton of a full-sleeved white dress, for instance, was grown on Barbados using only rainwater irrigation, making it more expensive than other cottons, while a double-breasted men’s jacket in fine ombré red cashmere is dip-dyed by hand in Uruguay.Hearst launched her brand nearly 10 years ago and her design codes have been sharpened to a point. Seasonal novelty comes from the evolution of the craft techniques she employs. This season those included a spaghetti loop stitch seen on a strapless dress in earthy spice shades and a cashmere yarn spun with glass beads that she used for a witchy black openwork caftan.Also new this season was a bolder-than-usual color palette. The pink of a loopy knit and matching shoulder bag and the vivid cerulean blue of a shearling wrap coat both stood out. But the most exciting development has to be the new two-tone cowboy boots. Having grown up on a ranch in Uruguay, Hearst is particular on the subject. “They took a while to develop,” she said. “I don’t like boots that look like toys.” Her power women customers are likely to appreciate that kind of rigor.
7 June 2024
The question going into Gabriela Hearst’s show today—other than how to get an Uber out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the snowstorm—was whether or not her exit from Chloé after a three-year creative directorship would impact her own label. A life reset like that is a powerful thing, but this collection was less a rethink of her aesthetic and approach than a doubling down.She has reason to lean that way. At a studio appointment Hearst said that leading up to a show her store is always busy with VIP clients ordering custom pieces to wear in the front row. “It’s huge days for us pre-show, they want one-of-a-kind things.”On the runway, a quilted denim duster coat felt like a callback to a puffer vest from the earliest days of her brand. “But it’s better, because it’s not actually denim, it’s recycled cotton with hemp,” she said, meaning it’s easier on the environment than a garment made from new denim. Sustainability is one of her brand tenets. A dress with a bodice and a single puff sleeve in gold leather was reminiscent of spring 2023, when she was channeling Athena, the goddess of war. Feminism, of course, is another rallying cry.This season Hearst was talking about Leonora Carrington, the British surrealist painter and author who later became a founding member of the women’s liberation movement in Mexico. “I’ve been feeling for a while that surrealism was the movement that explained the atrocities of the First World War,” said Hearst. “Humanity hadn’t seen anything of that scale at that point: A bit of what we’re going through today, through all the wars and the conflicts and the famines, surrealism feels relevant.”Here and there, things weren’t what they seemed. The “fur” of a pair of coats, for example, was actually woven cashmere sheared with vertical lines to evoke the real thing. Or else, fabrics were manipulated to look unfamiliar, like the trench in crinkled leather. The collection could have stood a bolder interpretation of the magical realism and alchemy Carrington depicted in her dreamlike paintings. Doubling down makes good business sense, but wouldn’t it be something to see Hearst really let it rip?
13 February 2024
Refined, classically inclined, quietly luxurious. Gabriela Hearst’s menswear is many things, but sexy is not necessarily one of them. That changes though with her fall 2024 offering. In the look book, there’s a sliver of midriff between a snug cable knit sweater and the low slung, slightly flared pants paired with it. The hip-huggers are modeled after the ones Hearst makes for Leiva, a Spanish musician and friend.Hearst is a textile obsessive, and her taste has always been rarified, but her choices this season felt particularly sensuous. The white and red silk velvet she used for button-down shirts (and the waistband of the silk cady trousers they’re worn with) is as hard to source as it is soft on the skin. Most designers are content to use silk velvet with added viscose, which brings down the price. Not this designer. The black leather of a shirt, pants, and car coat combo looks similarly supple. There’s also a bomber jacket in eco cashmere bouclé and a hoodie in a cashmere “fur” with a lusciously deep pile.Hearst reports an uptick in requests from male celebrities, which goes a way to explaining the lineup’s new vibes. But there’s nothing as conventional here as traditional black tie. No neckties either, even though they were a frequent sight at the men’s shows in Milan and Paris. Sensualist that she is, Hearst suggests wearing a tuxedo with a fine cotton jersey T-shirt and a fringed scarf—double-faced brushed cashmere, of course.
26 January 2024
Marcia Gay Harden was in the front row at Gabriela Hearst today. One of her greatest roles was inPollockas Lee Krasner, an artist whose work was overshadowed by that of her more famous husband, Jackson Pollock. “You’ve done it, Pollock, you’ve cracked it wide open,” was her most memorable line in the film, delivered after Ed Harris’s Pollock completes his first drip painting.Laura Dern and Rebecca Hall were in the audience today too. Hearst has become known as a thinking woman’s designer in the eight years since launching her label. She cuts an elegant pantsuit, usually in responsibly sourced or deadstock materials; this time around she showed it with a white button-down boasting an exaggerated pointy collar. She’s also passionate about craft. There was an extraordinary white poncho and dress in this collection whose elaborate patterns were hand-crocheted and -macraméd by Bolivian artisans after a painting by the Haitian artist Levoy Exil, whose work draws inspiration from voodoo. The poncho took more than 1,500 hours to complete. Beaded mesh dresses, while simpler, required their own time-consuming steps; to make the yarn, the glass beads are first strung on silk, which is then spun with cashmere.Hearst has a witchy side. At a resort appointment in June, she was talking up the Druids, and this season she quoted from a Wicca handbook and Exil’s own spiritual traditions. The collection’s freshest dress, made from black cashmere and linen gauze, had the long, draped sleeves of a high priestess robe. She said it was a lot of work to get right.Witchy or not, it’s hard to think of another American brand today producing at Hearst’s level of luxury; that goes for the have-to-be-felt-to-be-believed cashmeres that come back season after season and for this spring’s special handmade pieces from Bolivia. By now, though, a lot of this has become familiar from Hearst, and the runway format demands newness. Later this month, she’ll show her final collection for Chloé in Paris. She could come back next February having cracked it wide open.
12 September 2023
Gabriela Hearst was taking resort appointments last Wednesday, the day the New York sky turned a dystopian shade of orange. It made her study of the ancient Druid culture all the more poignant. “I’ve been asking myself where did society take a wrong turn,” she explained, hinting that it may have been when the Romans wiped out the Druids. Reading from a book on the subject by Peter Berrsford Ellis, she said, “the Romans based their laws on private ownership of land with property rights entirely vested on the head of the family, while the Druids always considered ownership collective.”What if we had evolved as a species that respected natural resources because we understood that the natural world and the human one are not distinct, but deeply interconnected? There’s always lots to chew on with Hearst, even if the connection between her research and her collection isn’t necessarily apparent, beyond her commitment to using responsibly sourced and sustainable materials, that is.Resort finds her iterating on her design signatures. The most eye-catching development is the metal hardware that accents otherwise unadorned, even austere dresses. The hardware trims a circular cut-out at the hipbone of a long-sleeved style and encircles one bicep on a strapless dress. These are evolutions of runway numbers through whose side cut-outs you could see sculpted metal panniers. Other special occasion dresses combined the simplicity of a t-shirt on top and a long narrow skirt with graceful draping at the hips.The pleasures of Hearst’s clothes encompass the visual, but equally, if not more, important is the way they feel on the body. She earns the term “quiet luxury.” This season that quality came across most distinctly on a cashmere knit dress whose hand knit aran pattern changed from neckline to midi-length hem, giving it its feminine hourglass shape.
13 June 2023
Recently I encountered a woman business owner with a serious Gabriela Hearst collection. Over the course of reporting a piece about her, she wore two of the designer’s knit dresses and admitted to having bought many others. She has a real designer crush.With long sleeves, high necklines, and midi lengths, Hearst’s dresses are the soul of discretion without being sexless, which is essential to their appeal. This season’s version is colorblocked in squares of red, yellow, and black bordered by white. The motif was inspired by Eileen Gray, an early 20th-century architect and furniture designer who was often overshadowed by her male peers.Hearst tends to nominate under-recognized women as seasonal muses—Gray spent her last 30 years living a quiet life. Then, decades after her death a chair of her design that belonged to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé sold for $28 million, the highest price ever fetched for a piece of modern furniture. There was a real connection between Gray’s vocabulary and Hearst’s today.The furniture designer’s lacquered wood screens provided the template for bags made from interlocking squares of leather. And a famous photo of Le Corbusier in the buff at Gray’s house E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, a large scar visible on his thigh, suggested the scarring effect seen on leather pieces. The slits cut into a burgundy trench flashed Mediterranean blue, while the ones on the burgundy strapless dress were fiery red. A pair of understated finale dresses with cut-outs on the sides from which metal panniers peeked out seemed to nod towards the chrome Gray used in her adjustable E-1027 table. She was the first to use the material, beating both Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to the punch. That table looks utterly contemporary.Hearst was gesturing toward timelessness with this collection. It was rounded out with the minimal tailoring and robust cashmere knits for women and men that she’s known for, and a new collaboration with Tricker’s, the British shoemaker established in 1829. They’ll look smart with those knit midi dresses.
14 February 2023
Do the guys in your life shudder at fabrics with the slightest itch? Twist away at the smallest wool prickle? Mine are so averse to humble fibers, you’d think they were born in cashmere. Reader: they were not. But once men get used to the finer things it would seem it’s hard for them to go back. That’s what Gabriela Hearst is betting on with her men’s collection, which is made with the loftiest, downiest materials around: double-face recycled cashmere outerwear, eco cashmere bouclé bombers, single-face winter silk suiting that feels like cashmere, and aran cashmere knits—the list goes on.“Everything feels so crazy, stimuli, stimuli, stimuli, and how many likes can we have on our Instagram photo?” Hearst explained. “So I really feel the need for calmness. And I think that a lot of the depth of richness in this collection comes from the fabrics themselves.” The monochrome styling—top coat, blazer, button-down, and pants, all in chocolate brown, for example, or a hoodie-shirt, Manos de Uruguay sweater, turtleneck, and trousers all in bone white—emphasizes the sense of serenity here. Hearst also has an eye for color, however, as the tweedy sweater and striped polo knit pictured in the slideshow amply demonstrate. Minimal was another word she bandied about this season. That fits, though the generous flare of some of the pants here suggests a more expansive interpretation of the word.The best part of all this: Hearst says a lot of the fabrics in the men’s offering are going to reappear in her women’s collection, which hits the runway on February 14.
31 January 2023
These photos tell only part of the story about Gabriela Hearst’s show today. Just beyond the picture frame, the runway was lined with members of the Resistance Revival Chorus. They sang “This Joy,” a gospel song written by Pastor Shirley Caesar. Joy has been the buzzword of the week; few designers have failed to mention it: “in times like these…” But only Hearst booked this choir, and the singers more than delivered on the song’s promise. It was a feel-great moment, made more so by the diverse group of friends that Hearst cast, from the former president of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards to the young climate activist Xiye Bastida to the anti-toxic shock syndrome advocate Lauren Wasser.Hearst has woven female empowerment into her brand DNA. She likes being a connector, hooking up one woman on a mission with another, and in the process side-stepping the male dominated systems that disadvantage us. This season she made those intentions more explicit in the clothes. The opening series of dresses were constructed of black jersey fixed with molded gold leather whose ruffled raw edges extended beyond the shape of the torso. These nodded in the direction of the Yves Saint Laurent gold breastplates made by Claude Lalanne, but the vibe here was more Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. Later on came a pair of knit pieces inset with crocheted segments in fiery shades of red and orange, and these too conjured thoughts of warrior women who dared to approach the flame. Heart’s friend Cecile Richards’s book is calledMake Trouble, don’t forget.The collection was a showcase for similarly fine handicrafts. Soft ruched leather for a pair of looks worn by the ’90s stars Kirsty Hume and Carolyn Murphy; three-dimensional gold thread embroideries on an ivory dress and well-tailored suit; silk ladder stitch knit dresses as gossamer as spiderwebs. A gold version worn with a matching poncho was especially striking.Hearst came out for her bow wearing a cap stitched with the logo of Sound Future. Her friend Brandy Schultz, who walked in the show, is the co-founder of the non-profit, which seeks to “measure, discover, and deploy meaningful environmental solutions for the live event industry.” Fashion is in need of a meaningful environmental solution—ask anyone about their Uber bill so far this season. It’s a long way from positive intent to measurable change, but Hearst is making the right connections.
13 September 2022
Gabriela Hearst’s resort collection started with a dream about a woman on a horse. She was a chieftain at the top of a mountain of fire. Hearst, who often taps into her Uruguayan roots, layered these clothes with equestrian touches. There are long leather coats debossed in a swirling pattern of her design finished with whipstitched edges and buttons engraved with the same curving motif, and a new leather bag has been finished with a contrasting leather bottom that she said was meant to evoke the sole of a riding boot.As ever, Hearst emphasized craft. The crochet cashmere dresses and separates—again, in that swirl design—are the work of many women’s hands and many hundreds of hours, she explained. “I like working with other women,” she said. “I think of that Gloria Steinem quote: ‘We are linked, not ranked.’ We all have to start helping each other more.” The patchwork chambray and denim pieces are the result of a new collaboration with Anna Foster of E.L.V. Denim, who sources vintage jeans and reworks them. You’ll notice the curving seams.Materials are Hearst’s other driving passion. Of particular note is the three-dimensional popcorn knit of merino wool separates (not pictured in the lookbook), the silk of fine tailored outerwear and suits for both women and men, and the substantial, lustrous black silk of a double-breasted tuxedo. An evening number married that silk with a ribbed knit bodice. “That’s not easy to do, to get it to fall right,” she said. The hard work resulted in an effortless, highly elegant dress.
13 June 2022
For centuries fashion has been a primary tool for establishing and sharpening the gender binary. What happens when that falls away? When both designers and customers reject it? The runways have become a platform for the questioning of gender that has long occupied LGBTQ communities. This has happened at the fringes for decades, but with a new wave of trans and androgynous models recasting our notions of beauty, the project is going more mainstream.Gabriela Hearst credits her teenage daughters for advancing her own thinking; their conceptions of gender are at odds with the more static understanding that her generation grew up with. “Kids want to be free,” she said at a preview. “For them, gender is an imposition.” As a designer, she makes few distinctions between her women’s and men’s collections. On the runway today, colors, materials, and silhouettes were shared across them, and in the showroom the overlaps were even more apparent.As is Hearst’s wont, she put nature at the heart of her thinking and process. The luscious citrine and watermelon colors of her Manos del Uruguay–knitted chunky cashmere sweaters were achieved via botanical dyes. The print on the cashmere-silk knit poncho that was a focal point of the collection was taken from the artist Ana Martinez Orizondo’s painting of a tree. And the crochet motif on a sleeveless dress and a long-sleeve top and midiskirt was inspired by a peacock’s tail feathers. Safe to say Hearst is the earthiest luxury designer around.But she can do worldly too. Amber Valletta closed the show in a double-breasted suit made from sportswear wool whose sharpness belied its comfort factor. Trenches were finished with storm flaps made from panels of woven leather and silk crepe de chine that Hearst likened to armor. She was equally proud to point out that the elaborate pleating on the bodice and sleeves of a flower-print dress was done in New York’s garment district. And then there was the black dress whose voluminous ivory sleeves looked straight out of a Renaissance painting. It’s no coincidence that the Renaissance was another time of challenges to gender duality.
15 February 2022
Hypebeasts and crypto bros aren’t building their wardrobes at Gabriela Hearst. You won’t find any logo hoodies here—better make that logos, period. And she isn’t bothering to put her name on trainers, either, though they are ubiquitous almost everywhere else. Though it’s a small operation compared to her women’s ready-to-wear, Hearst’s menswear operates according to the same sustainable principles. For fall 2022, 57% of her materials are deadstock or recycled, and she designs both crewneck sweaters and shirt jackets to be reversible, doubling their investment value.Who is shopping Hearst’s menswear, then? Guys that respond to big, juicy colors: Her signature chunky handknit cashmeres come in watermelon, citrus, tourmaline, and averturine green this go-around, hues that also appear in the large woven check of a double-breasted coat. Guys who like feel-good textures, like the nubby bouclé of robe coats and shirt jackets, and the soft hand of the repurposed wide wale cotton corduroy she uses for her suits. Also: guys who are unafraid of thick-soled cork sandals with rainbow-colored leather straps that are her shoes of choice this season. Oh, and many of her women clients too.
31 January 2022
In the crowd at Gabriela Hearst’s show today were Naiomi Glasses and TahNibaa Naataanii. Members of the Navajo Nation, they collaborated with Hearst on the woven swatches that were inset into the bodice of a sleeveless dress and the shoulders of a trench. Glasses organized the arrangement (she’s a graduate of the Creative Futures Collective, which is dedicated to empowering creatives from disenfranchised communities), and Naataanii, who is a sheepherder and a weaver, did the hand work, with the help of her mother and daughter.At a preview, Hearst said, “I like to make sure that what we do is good for more people than just us.” Her press notes put it this way: “Being able to create beautiful pieces that are desirable and at the same time that empower others is probably one of the most satisfying personal experiences.” She also worked with Manos del Uruguay and a Bolivian collective, Madres & Artesanas Tex. The former are responsible for a couple of gorgeous chunky runas, and the latter for pieces in a finer gauge multicolor crochet based on a swirling, abstract painting Hearst made with her children.The non-profits are her regular collaborators, but she also talked about helping a close friend through a mental health crisis, and incorporating the art her friend made during her crisis into the spring collection. The flower print pieces that are the result of that process didn’t make it into the show, but in the studio they looked bright and lively. On the runway, Hearst’s verve is sometimes smoothed out in favor of concision and clarity, a certain fashionable decorum. But those who know Hearst, or even just follow her Instagram, are familiar with her irreverence, her inner wild child. She makes a dignified suit, but she’s also a woman who loves dip-dye.While developing this collection, Hearst discovered Hester Diamond, the late art and minerals collector and the mother of the Beastie Boys’ Mike D. Hearst’s soundtrack lifted a snippet of dialogue from a recent documentary about Diamond. The interviewer asks, “Do you think you have gotten bolder as you have gotten older?” Diamond replies, “It’s how I have lived and will live for as long as I live.” Here’s to a runway appearance for those dip-dyes, or their equivalent, next season.
9 September 2021
It’s been a long 15 months of Zoom appointments. That’s partly why a showroom visit to Gabriela Hearst’s office felt like an adrenaline kick, but what it really comes down to is the designer herself. I’m not the only one to observe that Hearst is a force of nature. She took on the creative director duties of Chloé in December and has been shuttling between New York and Paris ever since. Resort is the first full season she completed after the appointment, and she confessed she was concerned about pulling it together.She needn’t have worried. The 38-look lineup, which includes some men’s pieces, appears anything but dashed off. Hearst is making some of New York’s most finely wrought clothes: a double-face cashmere coat finished with a hem of sacred geometry lace, a dress embellished at the neckline with colorful agates left over from her pandemic-interrupted spring collection, a long linen shift with macramé chakanas inset at the chakras, a leather coat in earthy tones assembled like marquetry, and cashmere intarsia sweaters with famous North and South American sites from Yellowstone to Machu Picchu.Those are just the more obvious details. Meanwhile, her efforts around sustainability are ongoing. A jean jacket and its matching flares were patchworked in a rainbow of four different shades of deadstock denim. The collection is 49% upcycled or deadstock material, close to her stated goal of 50% for 2021. The biggest advances might be in her footwear. Sandals with deep cork beds are a guaranteed hit—the cork is harvested without cutting down trees and it can biodegrade. There are also boots made with natural rubber soles and espadrille flatforms built on a base of algae-derived foam that cuts down on plastic.Hearst talks about the couture-level embellishments and the nitty-gritty of responsible design with the same enthusiasm. But she’s most passionate about her many collaborators, from her daughter Mia, who painted the rainbow eyes that appear on some silk separates, to the New York artisans whose workmanship on the collection’s macramé-inset shifts she says rivals anything in Paris. She would know.
10 June 2021
Gabriela Hearst was talking up Hildegard of Bingen on a Zoom call. A writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, and Benedictine abbess, Hildegard was a regular Renaissance woman, except that she predated the Renaissance by about two centuries. “I’m convinced,” Hearst said, “that if she had been a man we’d know her name like we do Leonardo da Vinci’s.” In fact, Hildegard sketched aUniversal Man,not unlike Da Vinci’sVitruvian Man, only hers was completed 300 years earlier. Rather belatedly Pope Benedict XVI made her a Doctor of the Church in 2012.Hildegard resonates with Hearst because among her other polymath pursuits, she was an herbalist, a woman really at one with nature. “She believed in ‘green power,’” said the designer. The environment is a passion of Hearst’s too. Fashion isn’t the greenest of industries, but her company is making strides. She reported that last year 40% of the materials used in the production of her collections were repurposed and deadstock. Her 2021 goal is 50%. Hearst’s efforts around responsible design are at least partly why she was hired as Chloé’s new creative director in December. CEO Riccardo Bellini said, “Together we share the conviction that we all have a responsibility to actively participate in the shaping of a sustainable future.”“Green power” animates this collection. Hearst’s 12-year-old daughter Mia’s interpretations of Hildegard’s painted flowers appear as a print on a silk shirtdress and as crocheted appliqués on knit sweater and skirt sets. They also inspired a pair of extraordinary ruanas, hand-knit by the Manos del Uruguay women’s collective in Hearst’s native country. Hearst’s own renditions of Hildegard’s flowers were transformed into hand-painted belt buckles at the center of which she placedmano figas,talismans signifying fertility and, by extension, female power.Hearst’s work is a balancing act between her earthier instincts and her worldly ones—for every hand-knit sweater there is also a well-tailored pantsuit. This season those opposing poles came together synergistically. Knotting details at the shoulders softened the lines of a trench and the hem of another coat was finished with a deep band of macramé lace. Elsewhere, recycled cashmere lumberjill shirts were paired with matching fluid midiskirts. There’s been endless talk about the new suit and how COVID-19 time will reshape tailoring; Hearst may just have an answer.
18 February 2021
On a Zoom call Gabriela Hearst shared a snapshot of her father on a rare trip to Manhattan. Hearst’s dad was an Uruguayan rancher and he turned up in a favorite poncho. “A gaucho in New York,” she said proudly. The picture was the starting point for her latest men’s outing. Since she added the collection to her repertoire two years ago she’s made luxurious, often sustainable fabrics its selling point; dudes dig recycled cashmere too.The ruanas mark a shift—an embrace of the bold gesture. That photo is more than a decade old, but a guy walking down the street today with his ruana flung over his shoulder would look just as striking as Hearst’s father did back when, maybe more so considering our moment is so defined by puffer jackets and sweats. It’ll be interesting to see how she develops that silhouette—and her instinct for audacity—going forward.Elsewhere, Hearst was as attentive to fabric choices as ever. A deadstock black-and-white micro check wool she used for a single-breasted suit was hand-embroidered with little dots for added flair, while another wool suit was naturally flecked in the weaving process, then paired with a flecked sweater to match. Her color sense is also sharp. A navy turtleneck and burgundy trousers were topped by a cherry red lumberjack shirt. That shirt is the anti-ruana—conventional, even—but in recycled cashmere felt it was as elevated as the rest of the lineup.
9 February 2021
New York’s strict COVID-19 regulations effectively killed Fashion Week here. Save for a small handful of IRL shows, designers produced videos, bumped their presentation dates back to mid-October, or sat the season out entirely. Gabriela Hearst decided to take her collection to Paris. In the five years since she launched her eponymous brand, Hearst has gone from an unknown to the CFDA’s Womenswear Designer of the Year. When she picked up the award last month, it was the first time a woman designer has won the prize in five years. A Paris show is another notch in her belt: a signal of not just her success, but also of her ambition.An editor on the ground in the École des Beaux-Arts courtyard venue, who had never seen a Hearst show in person, summed up her impression: “juste.” The collection of 30 looks efficiently telegraphed Hearst’s point of view; it was just enough.Justealso means “fair,” and certainly, Hearst’s efforts around sustainability this season were impressive. She offset the show’s carbon footprint with a donation to Madre de Dios, a Peruvian NGO that protects the country’s Amazon rain forest and monitors its endangered species, creating jobs in the region in the process. And she continues to be a leader in the use of upcycled materials and deadstocks.“It was really important to us to push ourselves creatively, to not let the pandemic stifle us,” Hearst said on a Zoom call. “It became the craft challenge.” The GH tailoring that has made its way onto the backs of influential women like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Meghan Markle, Jill Biden, and Oprah Winfrey, took a back seat. Instead, and in keeping with the themes of comfort and ease that have defined the season so far, Hearst trained her focus on knitwear: A long crocheted tank dress of many colors and its ivory sister were both striking, as were a pair of hand-knit cashmere ponchos with fringe that nearly reached the ankles in back.The collection’s genesis was a shell bracelet from Easter Island, a gift from Hearst’s mother back in January. The designer re-created it as shell trimming along the edges of circular cut-outs and on the straps of two repurposed silk dresses, making keepsakes to treasure of what were otherwise simple silhouettes. The shells led her to explorations of the golden spiral, which she reproduced in embroidered seaming details on a pair of slub linen trenches and on an aloe linen dress. Sacred geometry posits that God is the geometer of the world.
In the immortal words of Ariana Grande, “God is a woman.” Hearst did a nice job channeling her work.
4 October 2020
Gabriela Hearst picked up the CFDA’s Womenswear Designer of the Year Award on Monday. “It is a huge encouragement for the team and I,” she said on Instagram, then followed that up with a shout-out to her seamstress and “master of the ‘mucha trabajo’” Shirley Zheng. Hearst is an engaging mix of elegance and earthy bonhomie, which comes across in her ready-to-wear with its mix of fine tailoring and high-touch crafts.Her menswear has less of the handcrafted element, but you could say this new collection was designed with the earth in mind. It’s her first made entirely from deadstock material, a milestone that’s just as significant as that CFDA win. Is a line’s sustainability factor a lure for male shoppers? Time will tell, but one thing Hearst knows for sure is that guys are repeat customers. Presumably when they slip into one of her cashmere T-shirts, there’s no going back to Hanes.“It was very interesting to create a collection where you have such limitations and still make something cohesive,” she said on a Zoom call. “I’m very proud of what we did.” Her look book model is Facundo Sola, the Argentinian polo player. Apparently, he was a reluctant model, at least at first, but he looks game enough here. It must’ve been all that repurposed cashmere.
16 September 2020
Gabriela Hearst sent over a resort box with no fewer than 37 fabric swatches, one more sumptuous than the next, and many of them recovered from deadstock supplies. Hearst’s modus operandi is to prove the mutual compatibility of luxury and sustainability, the thinking being that the more you normalize the likes of repurposed silk cotton voile and recycled stretch polyester, the more you problematize materials such as standard issue cotton and polyester, which require obscene amounts of water to grow, and virgin plastic to manufacture, repsectively. That said, there’s nothing normal in the least about Hearst’s materials. You need only brush your hand against the multi-ply of her handknit cashmere sweaters, this season with new bell sleeves, or take a longing glance at the fiery tie-dyed cashmere flannel of a sharply cut jacket.The designer produced a short Zoe Ghertner-lensed video for the collection in the California desert in which she appears alongside her sister, riding a horse bareback. On the voiceover Hearst says, “my sustainable practice is exactly what that word is: it’s a practice. You never achieve perfection, but you have to start. We don’t have an option.” Few of the atmospheric films we’ve watched during these digital fashion weeks strike as natural a balance between authenticity and aspiration. As far as aspiration goes, there was certainly no scaling back of ambition in Hearst’s studio.The collection’s stars are a black leather trench with hand-painted white leather lace “stripes” down its back, and another coat in that fire tie-dye, with a spectacular matching blanket shawl. Rounding it out is Hearst’s minimalist tailoring, made a little less minimal this season with a knotting detail on the lapel, and dresses and separates in cotton voile and denim-look linen with elevating metal-trimmed leather collar details and belts. Her new boots come with metal toe caps that took her seasons to get right. Hearst is forecasting a “bonfire” for our quarantine leggings and sweatpants. “We have to dream,” she says.
14 July 2020
Can an entire collection be made from waste products? And can you make that waste into something beautiful? Those are the questions that Gabriela Hearst set out to answer with her new offering. “When you put parameters around creativity, it becomes more focused,” she said. Hearst was talking about sustainability earlier than most, and she’s demonstrated a real passion for the subject, from setting goals to eliminate plastic to measuring the carbon footprint of her fashion shows. The giant shredded paper bales that decorated her show space today acted as a visual metaphor for her new project. As we enter the 2020s, we need to begin using the resources at hand, not continue to make new ones.For fall Hearst took on that challenge in several ways, making a trench coat and peacoat and a couple of bags from repurposed Turkish kilim remnants, and a pair of color-blocked riding coats from existing outerwear that she deconstructed and reassembled. The navy and camel coats were blanket stitched in substantial burgundy thread, which made a virtue of their make-do-and-mendedness. The collection’s chunky knit scarves were hand-knit by the Manos del Uruguay collective in Hearst’s native Uruguay using more recycled cashmere yarn than in previous seasons; the quality of the supply has improved, she explained.After sustainability, tailoring is probably fashion’s biggest story of the moment. Hearst has specialized in that since the start of her brand five years ago. This season’s suits leaned a little ’70s, but they definitely didn’t have cashmere corduroy back then. Even more impressive was the leather braiding that detailed the open seams of a black leather trench. In a preview Hearst said she had her leather coats, dresses, and boots hand-painted with mandalas and other mystical symbols because, “When it comes to energy, we need to look into the future, and when it comes to garments, into the past.” No, an entire Gabriela Hearst collection can’t be made from waste products, not yet. But beautiful? You bet.
11 February 2020
On this website we write a lot about the advantages of being a woman designing for women. Being a woman designing for men is its own kind of asset. To start with, your husband will always be the best-dressed guy at a party. All you ladies out there know that’s no small thing.Gabriela Hearst is new to menswear—fall is just her third season—but she has very clear ideas about what she likes. No superfluities, as a rule. And not much change in silhouette from season to season, either. “We’re building on the same blocks, it’s just been about getting those blocks right,” she said at a showroom appointment. “The silhouettes are simple, it’s all about fabric.”Color and texture are Hearst’s things. One rack was devoted to casual corduroy suiting in a rainbow of shades, from light blue to a saffron-ish yellow to deep burgundy, and fine-gauge merino wool and cashmere knits dyed to match. The cashmere T-shirt was particularly compelling. You can’t go back to cotton after that.Knits are Hearst’s forte and she also showed a range of more substantial sweaters, including larger sizes of the lofty crewnecks she has made by Manos del Uruguay and donegal flecked grandpa cardigans and pullovers knit from recycled cashmere yarn. “In the last year, there’s been a big leap in improvements in recycled yarns,” she commented.On the more formal side, she had her made-in-Italy pantsuits cut from cashmere tweed. Your husband will like the way it feels, and—admit it, this is just as important—you’ll love the way he looks.
4 February 2020
When my seatmate at Gabriela Hearst’s show today said “American Hermès,” I was reminded of a review I wrote about the designer three years ago in which I said pretty much thesame thing. Who doesn’t like being proven right? But this isn’t gloating. It’s only that the comparison feels even more relevant this season with Hearst’s deep focus on craft.Hearst has always chosen the most elevated fabrics—even her deadstock has come from Loro Piana in the past. Here, she merged those fine materials with incredible made-in-NYC handwork. The macramé leather panels on the show-opening black cotton trench took weeks to complete. Another trench in ivory-colored wool silk was spliced with silk macramé pleats. Even more extraordinary were a pair of halter dresses, the bibs of which boasted geodes encased in silk crochet.In an industry first, Hearst’s show was carbon neutral. She asked Bureau Betak to cut down on the power usage and waste associated with production (the models’ hair was done without electricity). Then she enlisted EcoAct, an advisory group that works with clients to meet the demands of climate change, to calculate the emissions and determine the necessary offset amounts. Why go to all this trouble? Hearst explained: “So that this will eventually become an industry standard. If we can do it, other people can do it.”The handwork is a Hearst standard—and much harder to replicate. “I don’t make things that people ‘need,’” she said. “People buy because they desire.” Here are two more pieces from the collection likely to inspire lust: the sunflower yellow silk cotton crepon dress cinched with a geode buckle belt (the color is gorgeous and the easy silhouette impossible to resist), and a smock dress in patchworked linen, which is better for the planet than cotton because it requires less water to grow. Handbags have been a distraction on other runways this week; we’ve seen so many and too many look the same. Hearst’s have personality. Her newest is a boxier version of her popular Nina bag with a seriously elevating marble closure.
10 September 2019
Gabriela Hearst is as obsessive about fabrics as designers come. To comb through the racks at her studio is to become acquainted with aloe linen that actually moisturizes the skin, a hand-knit so downy it’s almost weightless, and deadstock denim whose virtues extend beyond its eco bona fides. Especially impressive this season was the macramé detailing spliced between the pleats of otherwise quite minimal dresses and skirts, but there was an abundance of special workmanship. See: the whipstitching that connected two separate pieces of double-face cashmere, turning coats into three-dimensional puzzles, and the precision pleating on an elegant trench.Hearst just launched a menswear collection. Through the development process, she’s started making some of her women’s tailoring at a menswear factory, and she proudly showed off the results. Suiting has become a key part of her label; the most interesting development in this area: the jackets that gathered and tied at the waist, not with belts but via pattern-making and construction.She lavishes just as much attention on her accessories. Her signature Nina bag comes in stripes this season. She laughed describing how difficult those stripes were to get right on the Nina’s rounded, shell-like shape. An added bonus, she’s selling them with matching hand-knit crossbody bags.
7 June 2019
In 2019, sustainability is luxury. For proof, consider the rise of Gabriela Hearst, who launched her eponymous collection four years ago, and last month received a minority investment from LVMH’s venture arm. The designer had two special guests in her front row today. Twenty-two-year-old Kelsey Juliana and 10-year-old Levi Draheim are representatives of Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit organization supporting 21 young people across America in their fight for court ordered implementation of systemic science-based Climate Recovery Plans to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations to safe levels before 2100. Their case,Juliana v. United States & Donald Trump, et al, is awaiting trial in U.S. District Court. Hearst has contributed to the Trust, and she’s eager to bring it more exposure. “Climate change is the most important issue facing us today,” she said in a preview. “How do you grow with less impact? How efficiently can I do what I do?”She’s been asking herself those questions since the start of her business. Today she answered them in at least two ways. She believes that if a customer can choose a recycled cashmere felt coat rather than a regular cashmere one, she probably will. Similarly, if she can get the look of fur with a lofty plied wool cashmere, odds are she’ll make the environmentally-friendlier choice.Beyond the eco-conscious bona fides, Hearst’s calling card is her sophisticated tailoring. Her suits have become standbys for women who want to signal a seriousness of purpose and look chic doing it. Though she deemphasized them on her Fall runway, she didn’t let us forget about her sartorial prowess. The first two exits were sharply cut black double face cashmere coats, enlivened with Uruguayan coin buttons.Mostly, though, this collection was a showcase for knits of cloud-like softness. Among them: ladder stitch virgin wool skirts and dresses in shades of ivory and midnight, and dip-dyed sweaters hand-knit by the Manos de Uruguay collective in Hearst’s home country. Power woman, earth mother, and a sense of humor, too. Hearst’s latest bag is a jewel-like rose gold “phone case” with a clear panel through which the time display is visible—good fun.
13 February 2019
How pleasant to arrive at a fashion show and be presented with plates of fresh food and not an umbrella! You can’t control the weather, and Gabriela Hearst is too clever to try. First came the empanadas and the grilled vegetables, then came a 34-look parade of elegant tailoring and a full wardrobe of dresses cut from the most sumptuous materials any of us will see this week.Hearst’s restrained yet luxurious sensibility is resonating. Her first-ever store is under construction at the Carlyle hotel on Madison Avenue, and there are plans for international expansion in London and Hong Kong. First, the tailoring: Hearst has become the New York resource for a serious, expertly cut pantsuit as other labels here and in Europe succumb to ornamentation and frivolity. Her suits often come in a surprising color, like bordeaux or blush pink, or a novel fabric such as metallic linen, but today’s most striking was cut single-breasted with slim trousers in dark navy silk wool.Her dresses, meanwhile, ran the gamut, from sleek and sporty tanks in color-blocked cashmere to an hourglass evening number embroidered in freshwater pearls. What you didn’t see were any of the florally, frilly—sloppy, even—dresses produced by so many other labels these days. Hearst is true to her minimal deluxe aesthetic.Sharp observers noticed the jewelry—baroque pearl earrings, substantial gold chains, handfuls of semiprecious stone rings. Hearst is planning to sell the pieces at her new boutique and by email request on her e-commerce site. She launched her handbag business via the same method. It’s almost arcane in today’s click-to-buy world, filling out an email form and waiting for an emailed response, but counterintuitively, it works to build desire. Like we said, clever.
11 September 2018
Gabriela Hearst was up for Womenswear Designer of the Year at the CFDA Awards, just a year after she was nominated for the Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent, but the real proof of her skills and success was the steady stream of editors at her showroom today. Hearst was presenting her new Resort collection; it was one of about a dozen appointments on the calendar and by far the buzziest of any of them. Award or no award, a little over three years after she launched, hers is the New York label that women in the know are clamoring to wear. And some well-placed celebrities, too. We overheard a stylist promising to be in touch about an order of knit dresses for an acclaimed client. Hearst was delighted but unfazed. She is not a designer in it for the fame; what gets her genuinely excited are fine materials and superior craftsmanship.Both were much in evidence in this new collection, starting with the hand-stitched accordion shoulders on fine leather trenches, corset ribbing on tailored jackets, and truly astonishing binding work on the inside of what was an otherwise effortless day dress. Few other designers make this kind of effort; the results would be prohibitively dear, but Hearst has nurtured a clientele that appreciates the quality of her garments. Suiting has become a specialty, and the appeal of this season’s was the color palette, which included the navy she was wearing, as well as burgundy and vivid pink. The fine-gauge knitwear that the celebrity stylist was so excited about was equally vibrant, as were the hand knits made in Uruguay that she modeled after Costa Rican singer and rule breaker Chavela Vargas’s ponchos.One of the most compelling things about Hearst is her commitment to the environment. (Is it me, or is it mostly women who are leading this charge?) She’s set a goal to become a completely plastics-free company by April of 2019. That means, among other things, replacing all of the plastic bags her garments are shipped in with compostable Tipa packaging, which breaks down in 24 weeks as opposed to 500 years. Ambitious, yes. But Hearst has given us every indication that she’s up to the task.
4 June 2018
Gabriela Hearst had photographs of 19th-century female coal miners and women factory workers from World Wars I and II on her mood board this season. She dresses a different income bracket, but found ideas in those women’s uniforms nonetheless. Hearst likes adding utilitarian touches to her über-luxurious sportswear. Here, the hem of a camel peacoat was circled with pockets for little essentials so you can go bag-free. She made tool belts with removable pouches for the same reason, though there’s no shortage of special bags back in her showroom. Hearst has built a remarkably complete world in the three years since she launched this label. At the risk of sounding essentialist, this brand is connecting with women because Hearst is a woman. Hers is a real executive realness, as opposed to the muddled interpretations we’ve seen elsewhere this week.Victorian coal miners and Rosie the Riveter types weren’t her only references. Hearst nodded to her mother-in-law, Austine Hearst, a columnist for theWashington Times-Herald, with the micro riding boot print she used for a lovely draped silk twill dress (Austine was a rider and a writer) and a black-and-white newspaper-print collage. Real chic for our fake news era. A shirtdress in the pattern was accessorized with a generous scarf handknit in Hearst’s native Uruguay by the artisan cooperative Manos del Uruguay. As usual here, the materials were as fine as they come, but the finest was the fuzzy cobalt mohair cashmere coat that closed the show. Hearst gets extra points for the delicious Café Altro Paradiso lunch.
13 February 2018
Keith Richards, Winston Churchill, Chet Baker, and George Best—among many other famous men—were on Gabriela Hearst’s mood board this season. The idiosyncrasies of their outfits informed Hearst’s new Spring clothes down to the tiniest details. The clashing prints of Richards’s leopard jacket, striped shirt, and polka dot bow tie, for example, were shrunk down and reproduced on the herringbone lace that she used for a puff-sleeve shirtdress. Each look had a backstory like that: Mark Twain’s own polka dot bow ties and pocket watch inspired a fantastic plunge-front, dot-print dress with substantial chain links bisecting the torso at the midriff, steely but soft. And a photo of Miles Davis in windowpane checks is what encouraged her studio to laboriously hand-apply the graphic white grid to one of her nattily-tailored double-breasted suits.None of this information could be gleaned from the spectacular Pool restaurant at the former Four Seasons where this show took place, of course. The runway isn’t necessarily the best place for storytelling. But Hearst’s efficient silhouettes and elevated minimalism absolutely do belong in a place like the Four Seasons, with its lunchtime power brokers and other members of the global elite. Her clothes have a subtle luxury, yet it is luxury nonetheless. The neckline of her white crinkle silk one-sleeve dress is finished with resin-cast stones—who needs jewelry?—and she created belt buckles and buttons in the same materials for a slim-line trench and striped silk shirtdress. You don’t see elevated touches like those everywhere. Or like this: The merino wool she used for suiting and a shirtdress is made from sheep on her Uruguay farm. Call it farm-to-closet fashion. Hearst is a dynamo.
12 September 2017
Gabriela Hearst is a nominee in the Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent category at tonight’s CFDA Awards. But even if she doesn’t get the nod she deserves, she’ll have her moment in the spotlight. Hearst is dressing Board of Directors’ Tribute winner Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, who is being recognized for her activism alongside Gloria Steinem and Janelle Monáe. It’s an apt affiliation for Hearst: She’s currently raising money for Planned Parenthood with a sweater project. What’s more, she’s building activism into her still young brand. Hers is an environmental activism; some of her suiting is made with deadstock fabric, eliminating the carbon footprint of ordering and making new fabric. She’s also using linen where she can instead of cotton; the production of linen requires less water. To cut down on its itch factor, an American complaint, she’s treated it with aloe; apparently her linen will moisturize your skin while you wear it.Of course, activism only means so much when the aesthetics don’t match. Hearst has that covered. The white dress she’s made with that linen is utterly charming: long-sleeved, midi-length, and demure, as is the fashion now. Off-the-shoulder silhouettes in both easy day dresses and highly constructed, corseted tailoring suggest she’s trend savvy, but more typically, Hearst designs with an eye to subtle details. She calls them hidden luxuries, as in the inset sheer pleats at the back hem of a well-cut trench, of the lining of her reversible washed-denim puffer jacket, a signature item. It’s water-resistant wool. Hearst has always made the most of her Uruguay connection. Her ranch’s sheep provide much of the merino wool she uses in her collections; this time around, she’s combined it with 10 percent cashmere, but it’s so lofty, you’d swear it was 100 percent the real thing.
5 June 2017
In about two years since Gabriela Hearst launched her eponymous brand, she’s become a go-to designer for discreetly chic women who err on the classic side and care just as much about how a garment feels as how it looks. Her collection is situated somewhere along the Hermès, Céline, The Row continuum. What gets her excited is choosing materials—the more subtle and luxurious the better—not chasing trends. Today, she graduated from a small presentation format to a formal show. That’s always a test: With that photo pit at the end of the runway, designers feel pressure to perform, and it can lead them to style decisions they might not make otherwise.This was a considered presentation all around. Beforehand Hearst made a point that she wanted to do a show with as little environmental impact as possible—runway shows being notoriously wasteful. The pews were rented, the chairs came from her house, and the metal floorboards are to be donated afterward. The cashmere throw pillows on each seat? Made from leftover yarn from the knitting collective Manos del Uruguay in her native Uruguay. Hearst approached some of her Fall pieces in a similar way. A pink reefer coat was made from Loro Piana deadstock; there’s enough material for just 10 of them. “I like the idea that we’re doing our part by not creating something completely new.” That’s not something you hear a lot during Fashion Week.Hearst did a fine job of balancing practicality and desire here, always with an eye toward her fabrics. The two-tone silk corduroy she used for a nipped-waist dress was whisper-fine, almost weightless, and the herringbone velvet of softly belted robes de soirée was even more lush. If those pieces are appreciated best in close-up, others had long-range drama. Hearst has a great coat game. Two cashmere double-breasted coats cut a swath down the runway with their bordering-on–New Look proportions.
14 February 2017
Lena Dunhamwore a white off-the-shoulder dress byGabriela Hearstto the Democratic National Convention in July. As endorsements go, it was a big one, historical almost. Next stop, the White House? We did detect a patriotic color scheme in Hearst’s new Spring collection. Also: The designer is someone candidateClintoncould really get behind, being as she is an Uruguayan immigrant who’s launched a successful business here in New York.Matchmaking aside, this was another well-executed collection from Hearst. The refinement of her work belies the short year and a half she’s been in business. She’s certainly got a firmer handle on her signatures than peers who’ve been around as long. The most unique of those signatures is the way she plays up her Uruguayan roots via outdoorsy pieces like this season’s reversible puffer—soft faded denim on one side, and a washed striped silk on the other. Tailoring and knits are two important categories for the brand. The latter isn’t well represented in the pictures here, but the weightless tissue cashmere of the Henleys and button-downs and the compact merino of sporty bra tops and halters merits the U.S. Woolmark Prize Hearst took home in July. In the former category, a black suit with a cropped jacket and pleated trousers looked sharp. Suiting hasn’t received a lot of airtime this week, which works in Hearst’s favor.With Dunham and co. wearing her clothes on the red carpet, Hearst is focusing more of her attention on evening. A multicolored guipure lace dress with an embroidered organza bodice was lovely, and her asymmetrical strapped, part plissé all-in-one gets the prize for best black-tie jumpsuit of the week.
13 September 2016
At a showroom appointment today,Gabriela Hearstwas wearing a fine-gauge knit tee with embroidery over the heart that spelled outFemme D’Affairesfrom her new Resort collection. That translates to “Businesswoman” for the non–French speakers reading this. Hearst is the creative head of her company, of course, but the T-shirt she wore is fitting. New this season, she’s lining the pockets of her tailored pieces with a German-made material that shields against the reportedly harmful radiation emitted by cell phones. There’s a lot of talk about wearable tech in the industry. So often the ideas feel half-baked, but Hearst’s anti-radiation fabric seems genuinely thoughtful and like good business.A lot of care went into all of her fabric choices, so much so that it isn’t going out on a limb to say that what Hearst is building feels like an American competitor toHermès. Hearst hails from Uruguay, where she owns a sheep ranch, so she knows her knits, and her lineup features the full spectrum, from tissue-thin cashmere layering pieces, to thicker but still virtually weightless cashmere gauze pullovers and cardigans, to chunky wool sweaters she has made at home in Uruguay. Hearst’s customers will want to collect them in multiples, but there were a lot of other things to recommend this collection. The waterproof trench that reverses to a cashmere micro-check found deep within Loro Piana’s archives; a sweet lace dress embroidered brightly with flowers; and chic silk-wool cocktail dresses and pants with a distinctive frilled waistline. All around, impressive.
2 June 2016
Fall marks a year in business forGabriela Hearst. She celebrated by inviting everyone on her all-woman design team to make embroidered badges, some of which appear in the collection. There’s a family crest on a reversible down-lined blazer and epaulets on the shoulders of another jacket. Hearst makes polished, luxurious, expensive clothes, but they aren’t cold or antiseptic like some labels in this category can be. Hearst’s pieces feels less like the work of a corporation than they do the work of a collective. In our product-clogged world, that’s got to count on sales floors.As it happens, she enlisted a collective from her native Uruguay, Manos del Uruguay, to weave the tweed of a wrap coat she designed. “I sent my pattern to Scotland too, but they did it better in Uruguay.” She’s clever to play up her roots. Her ranch family heritage once again produced the collection’s most noteworthy, desirable pieces, among them almost impossibly soft, slouchy sweaters knit from warm yet light yak yarn, and puffer vests and jackets made from color-blocked waxed cotton or faded and distressed denim.Expanding her points of sale this season meant enlarging her offering, so there were newer ideas in the mix, like corduroy pantsuits in dusty rose or camel and a vintage novelty print shirt paired with a narrow skirt in a Swiss lace in a fringey vine-like motif. Some notions were stronger than others. One area where she’s quite assured is in bias-cut, languid dresses with a 1930s flavor; the black velvet slip dress she showed over a second-skin henley was especially alluring. And she’s utterly sure-footed when it comes to accessories. From the low wood heel of a leather bootie to the thick crepe sole of a deck shoe, she was keen to point out her footwear’s comfort factor, which is another thing that will count on the sales floors.
12 February 2016
Barneys New York has installedGabriela Hearst’s debut collection on its third floor, betweenChloéandCéline. Not bad for a fledgling label in its first season. Hearst arrives on the scene with a pedigree; she hails from a grand Uruguayan ranching family and she’s married to a descendant of William Randolph Hearst, but this is no vanity project. The proof is in that Barneys exclusive, and in her evolving collection. When she launched the line in February, it was tempting to classify Hearst as anotherPhoebe Philodisciple, a practitioner of the luxe minimal style that has dominated at retail for the past few years. But a season later, a distinct point of view is emerging, one that marries an urbane elegance with a rawer, even rustic look that nods at her heritage. That difference will work to Hearst’s advantage, especially as the fashion pendulum swings away from restraint toward a more exuberant sensibility.There were any number of understated, smartly cut coats and coatdresses here, and they’ll find plenty of customers when this collection lands on sales floors. So, too, will the streamlined strapless evening column with a built-in choker necklace (it connects to the dress in back). Inevitably, though, the items that made a stronger statement were the ones for which Hearst took bigger risks. A tank dress with floor-sweeping proportions was cut in Lurex-striped gauze—“beach fabric,” she called it, adding, “It makes me feel comfortable when something’s not so perfect.” Hearst should continue to follow that instinct. A rugged washed-cotton field jacket was one of the collection’s most desirable pieces. Elsewhere, she took cues from her husband’s cycling uniform for a ribbed-knit cashmere dress in bold, athletic stripes. Sexy as hell, it will stand out among the sea of knits about to inundate the runways, and it’s one more reason Hearst should keep going her own way.
11 September 2015
If you want to understand the changes afoot in the world of luxury fashion, Gabriela Hearst's new brand is a good place to look. Once upon a time, designers off in Paris or Milan—often men, but not always—would propose a vision of how their wealthy clients should dress and try to sell them on what was more or less a fantasy. Now, increasingly, those women are taking matters into their own hands. Hearst is a former model who comes from one of the oldest ranching families in Uruguay; she's married to a grandson of William Randolph Hearst. In that "once upon a time" era of fashion, she'd have been a fixture in the front row of the couture shows. Last season, though, Hearst did the modern thing and launched a label made up of luxe versions of the stuff she already knew she wanted to wear—matter-of-fact clothes like knee-length leather and knife-pleated skirts, cozy knits, natty coats. The materials she used were unbelievably fine and there was a glimmer of romance in her aesthetic. Barneys New York scooped up the collection and will be stocking pieces from Hearst's debut in all its stores.Hearst's clothes are incredibly appealing: It's easy to see yourself wearing them. (Financing that habit is another matter.) But her challenge, with this second outing, was to prove that she has the imagination to renew that appeal, season in and season out. She rose to the occasion by upping the romance factor, introducing micro-floral silk prints and hand-embroideries with a pastoral tone, and trading in chunky sweaters for gossamer, body-hugging ribs, and knee-length skirts for hems that skimmed the floor. Though the collection didn't lack for utilitarian items—a squared-off denim jumpsuit, to wit—or a sense of geometry, it erred on the whole toward softness and fluidity. The elevation was in the fabrications and the details—the windowpane zigzag of organza, equestrian-inspired metal hardware. You wouldn't describe these clothes as challenging, but Hearst's aesthetic is distinctive and resonant, and she is committed to the specialness of each of her pieces. Nothing looked tossed off. These days, that's a recipe for success.
10 June 2015