October 5, 2020 |
Yesterday, Gabriela Hearst made her Paris Fashion Week debut, a little under a month after being crowned American Womenswear Designer of the Year at the CFDA Fashion Awards. The Uruguayan designer – who usually shows under the NYFW umbrella – made the move with the intention of chopping travel emissions, as the majority of her product is made in Italy.
Hearst thinks with the greater good in mind before that of her own personal gain. This time last year she staged her first carbon-neutral fashion show, which even used no electricity during hair and make-up. Her brand ships orders wrapped in biodegradable tape and she plans on not using any virgin materials by 2022, yet she hopes to achieve this goal within the next 18 months.
The designer’s spring/summer 2021 collection was entirely made from deadstock materials, meaning her team didn’t buy any new fabrics this season. Staged in the gardens of the École des Beaux-Arts, soundtracked by Spanish singer Leiva, Hearst offset the show’s carbon footprint by donating to Madre de Dios, a Peruvian organisation that helps to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
A celebration of handcraft, silk dresses with circular cut-outs at the waist came adorned with shells, inspired by a bracelet her mother gifted the designer from Rapa Nahui earlier this year. These walked alongside sublime crochet dresses in ivory and rainbow hues, as well as tye-dye tunics and easy-going linen outerwear. Each piece is stamped with a QR code on the label, which will take customers to Garment Journey. Here, they will be able to receive information about not only the materials used to create the garments, but the ways in which they were produced. Gabriella Hearst is not only a designer of great, wearable clothes, but a modern-day change maker. Care to join her?
Photography by Cris Fragkou.
