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Gabriela Hearst on Creating the Grateful Dead’s First Designer Collection
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Music merch has a quality issue, according to Gabriela Hearst. “Without naming names, I will sometimes go see big talent, and I will see the quality of the merch from somebody who also cares about the environment. And I think, ‘something is off here,’” she tells Rolling Stone.
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So, when designing her new collection with the Grateful Dead — her first collection with a band — Hearst aimed to create an example and (hopefully) a benchmark for other labels and artists. “The standards that I use at Gabriela Hearst are very high and they’re not replicable in a music concert,” she explains. “But there’s a language [in the collection] that can be imitated when it comes to merch. You can still do things that are made with a better impact on the environment and also with a better quality standard.”
The designer’s Grateful Dead capsule is exactly what you’d expect from the celebrated luxury designer. The materials are sumptuous yet understated, with standout pieces like a Welfat cashmere Lawrence sweater that Hearst describes as “Prozac”: “When you put one of those sweaters on, you’re like, ‘eh, life is not so bad.’ It feels like a hug.” There are also tees, cashmere socks, and a bold blanket that could easily double as wall art. Shop everything now at GabrielaHearst.com.
Gabriela Hearst x Grateful Dead
Instead of the Dead’s more ubiquitous signage (dancing bears, tie-dye, etc.), the collection utilizes visual deep-cuts from the band’s beatnik beginnings. Serious Deadheads will recognize Roy Henry Vickers’ artwork from the Dead’s album Pacific Northwest ’73-’74: The Complete Recordings throughout the collection. “We played around at the beginning with the skulls and the things that you would recognize, but I thought it was interesting not to be so obvious,” says Hearst. “It was really, really fun to do because it’s a new take on what you would expect.”
To source these unexpected visuals, Hearst’s team was given access to the Dead’s mammoth archive. On a video call from her New York City office, Hearst shows us a large mood board filled with old Grateful Dead imagery. “It was really interesting to do research on the band, especially on the origins,” she says, “because it was much more beatnik, instead of the psychedelic graphics that we all recognize and love them for.”
Gabriela Hearst x Grateful Dead
The collection’s materials are equally unexpected for band merch, featuring the kind of high-end, strictly sustainable fabrics intrinsic to the Gabriela Hearst brand. Deadstock French terry and multiple varieties of cashmere (including Heart’s ludicrously soft Welfat cashmere) are some of the standouts. “The collaboration is really based on luxury materials,” she says. “I like things that are more humble to the eye, but very luxurious to the skin. Not pretentious, but great.”
Just like Hearst’s other collections, the Dead capsule also supports not-for-profits. “It’s made in Italy and with the not-for-profit Manos del Uruguay that I work with,” she says. “[Manos del Uruguay] empowers women in my country for over 50 years, because it employs them. And when you empower women, you empower communities.”
Gabriela Hearst x Grateful Dead
While this is Hearst’s first “merch” collection, it’s far from her first time working with musicians. “We’ve done suits for so many different artists and musicians. We dress all kinds of bands — Spanish bands, Latin bands, American folk bands,” she says. “We’re dressing Wesley [Schultz’s] upcoming tour with the Lumineers, Father John Misty, Cat Power. I mean, we love musicians.”
Who’s next? “I would love to make suits for Nick Cave. That’s an obvious one because it’s so dialed in that I think he knows exactly what he’s doing,” she says.
Shop Gabriela Heart’s new Grateful Dead collection now at GabrielaHearst.com.
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