By Helen Reid
PARIS, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Gabriela Hearst showed ikat patchwork jackets and dresses embroidered with “shisha” mirrors in a collection inspired by Afghanistan and partly made by Afghan women artisans in her spring/summer runway show at Paris Fashion Week on Monday.
The Uruguayan designer’s eponymous label worked with non-profit organisation Turquoise Mountain to find artisan makers in Afghanistan, and show notes given to each guest detailed the Central Asian country’s traditional textiles and its history from 1901 to the present day, focusing on Afghan women she called her “22 million muses”.
“It was such a beautiful collection to research, and to make, and to really think about the women,” Hearst told Reuters in an interview after the show. “In a place like Afghanistan things can be harsh … but they can also make beautiful things.”
In the circular courtyard garden of the Petit Palais, an art museum initially built for the 1900 Paris Exposition, models walked along colourful mosaic tiling as guests including actor Katie Holmes looked on.
Paintings by Afghan artisans featured on jewellery and buttons on linen blazers, and the show closed with white dresses embroidered with pomegranates – Afghanistan’s national fruit.
Silk trench coats were waxed with a water-based natural resin to replicate the effect of water-resistant nylon. Hearst has called on the fashion industry to stop using nylon and polyester, petrochemical-derived fabrics that have become ubiquitous owing to their low cost and versatility.
“All the climate is changing. You see it in Uruguay where I come from; it’s very hard to predict now,” she said, asked about the unusually hot early October weather in Paris. “We must never forget that we’re here because of the burning of fossil fuels.”
Hearst founded her label in 2015 and was also creative director at Chloe from 2020 to 2023, and said she would join a large label again “if the values were aligned”. LVMH Luxury Ventures took a minority stake in Gabriela Hearst at the start of 2019.
Fashion labels have been showing their spring/summer womenswear collections at Paris Fashion Week since September 28, with luxury megabrands Chanel and Louis Vuitton still coming up.
(Reporting by Helen ReidEditing by David Goodman)
