Gabriela Hearst Is Quietly Changing The Fashion Conversation

With a focus on luxury materials and creating products that truly last, Gabriela Hearst is quietly changing the fashion conversation.

- Renee Batchelor

It is not surprising that designer Gabriela Hearst is impressive in person. Tall, elegant and with a steely blue gaze, she is certainly someone who commands attention. The 43-year-old is perhaps the best spokesperson for her namesake brand. She wears her quietly luxurious designs and carries her brand’s bags. Hearst hates having to name her favourite bag, comparing it jokingly to having to choose her favourite child.

Prior to launching Gabriela Hearst in 2015, she started her own contemporary label, Candela, in 2003 with just US$700 (approx. S$950). “In the first year of Candela we went from $700 to $1 million, which was quite significant. That was how I supported myself, but it was a contemporary brand in a contemporary market — it meant that I couldn’t work with the quality I wanted. I couldn’t do tailoring… I couldn’t do a lot of things,” says Hearst.

What is unspoken is that today, under her Gabriela Hearst line, she can finally create the quality products that she has long aspired to produce. Hearst’s father, who passed away in 2011, left her his grass-fed organic cattle and merino sheep farm in her native Uruguay, which she still oversees, and it was then that she began to see the disconnect between what she was doing in her life in New York and what she was brought up to do. She decided that while there was no room for yet another fashion brand, perhaps there was room for a collection that was well-made — with top materials and the best construction. In addition, her pieces should also be consciously considered to lessen its impact on the environment. “If that product was going to occupy a space, it'd better be good. And if it were chosen over another product it'd better be great,” says Hearst.