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A year ago at this time Gabriela Hearst was dancing on the Seine with models and members of the Mangueira samba school of Brazil, 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 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-sleeved dress nodded at Fides, the goddess of faith and trust.
Hearst was earnest when she said she believes 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, the strong tailoring, the romantic dresses are all signatures she’s been refining over the decade or so 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, as well as 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, including a necklace of black silk cord from which she suspended both a tension set imperial jade pendant and a pavé of eight baguette diamonds.
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