What does Gabriela Hearst have in common with the Neolithic henge monument in Avebury, England?
Both emit an unreal energy you must experience to understand, the former’s palpable even over Zoom on an iPad stood in her Paris showroom, where the designer flicked through photos of her resort collection captured in this prehistoric site, model Jessica Miller whipping her long hair and casting out the hem of her mesh dress, channeling the pagan spirit of the place and the clothes.
“I really felt like we did a pilgrimage,” Hearst said, enthralled by the site’s 3,500 years of convening mystical journeys.
A wild, witchy energy simmered under the surface of Heart’s almost monastic designs, which include enveloping leather capes, clinging lace columns, fringed coats with tulip cuffs, and pretty full-skirted linen dresses.
All were pictured with one of the 98 hulking stones, arranged in circular formation, in the background.
Sunrise and sunset colors added verve, and personality, to tailored jacket and coats, some resembling gradient skies that Hearst sketched out in gouache. Others bore blurry patterns, including one — as Hearst explained, holding up an incense burner she bought in Tulum, Mexico — inspired by coiling smoke.
With its simple lines, earthy colors and sly bohemian flare, the collection gave off a perfume of the ‘70s as much as antiquity.
This handsome offering also came loaded with new ideas, including Heart’s first cowboy boots — executed by a designer with credibility, having grown up on a ranch in Uruguay, and extra tall like her — and a plethora of knit handbags done up in the same looped and beaded yarns employed for dresses.
Everything came in sumptuous fabrics that were divine to the touch, including high-pile velvets, meaty cashmeres of nearly impossible softness, and a crisp, cool Sea Island cotton that is cultivated by a small community in Barbados, the plants grown with only rainwater.
“We call it the cashmere of cotton because you can only buy it in small batches,” Hearst said, noting she also used it for a corduroy that practically melts through your fingers. “Everything has to have a hand and a quality, and this is non-negotiable for me.”
As for those swirling, incense-inspired prints and swirl-patterned lace, Hearst gave them a badass handle, using New York graffiti terms: “This is my tag.”