Gabriela Hearst is always seeking. She’s studied Druids, ancient mythology, and groundbreaking women across time. Lately, she’s turned to the Tarot, pulling a card each morning and writing down the results. The Lovers card in the Marseille deck gave this collection its color palette: pink, green, and blue, instead of the black, white, gold, and red she typically favors. It also gave her a template for this photo shoot; in the Marseille deck, there are three figures on the Lovers card rather than the usual pair: two women and a man. Hearst did some rearranging, she’s got one woman and two men in these pictures, and more power to her.
Power women are Hearst’s clientele—she reports that tailoring is 24% of her sales. To better cater to these customers, she’s added a bespoke service at her Madison Avenue across her boutique network. She’s cut a pre-fall pantsuit in cotton, a material she typically avoids because of the extraordinary amounts of water it requires to grow/ This cotton is grown on a regenerative farm in Italy; “it gives this fresh, sharp look to the suiting,” she said. Other suit jackets were swaddled under bomber jackets, soft power being the look she was going for.
As ever, Hearst’s materials are remarkable, whether its the floral silk jacquard of a romantic dress, lifted from a drawing of her daughter’s; the fine cashmere knitted with beads of a sweater and matching midi skirt; or the plongé leather of an M-65 field jacket. New this season is a double-face cashmere coat in black that reverses to camel, which bumps up its functionalty (she also showed it in a burgundy and pink version). Another novelty: 100% recycled denim used for jackets and jeans with wool, enamel, and leather buttons that you can twist off so you can throw the pieces in the washing machine to clean.
