The Chloé lookbook opens with a merino wool tank and maxi skirt accessorized with gold body chains that are a nod in the direction of Gabriela Hearst’s 17th century muse, the painter Artemisia Gentileschi. On a Zoom call last week, Hearst was talking up Gentileschi; both her artistry and her against-the-odds success (painting was not a typical woman’s profession 500 years ago) appealed to the designer. Also, “she did paintings of heroines,” Hearst said, adding that if Gentileschi had been born a man, we’d know more about her.
Allusions to the baroque era are a throughline of the new collection. There are graceful trumpet sleeves on a knit dress, a demure lace-up bodice on a hemp and linen number, and quilted puffers shaped like doublets made from leather or recycled nylon. Decoratively speaking, the offering’s harlequin motifs on knit separates and the color-blocking of a leather slip dress and poncho-cape are linked to the same time period.
But historicism isn’t really Hearst’s motivation. She quickly established her Chloé aesthetic after arriving at the Paris label two years ago. What drives her is the work she’s doing to produce fashion more sustainably, and if she can lift up women makers in the process, all the better. Among the brand’s partnerships with social enterprises are a new one with Madagascar’s Made For a Woman, the artisans of which have creations handwoven hats for the collection, and a two-season old arrangement with Paraguay’s Amumbai, whose artisans made some of the handwoven shoe styles here.
A partnership with Teva has yielded a group of its familiar sport sandals made completely with recycled materials. And via an ongoing collaboration with the jeans legend Adriano Goldschmeid, Hearst has developed a new wash that requires 80% less water than typical denim. Other jeans pieces have been made from post-consumer denim, “trash basically,” Hearst said. She’s as enterprising as ever.
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
