Chloé RTW Spring 2024
Gabriela Hearst samba danced off the Chloé stage Thursday afternoon with an exuberant spring 2024 collection that married her own South American ranching heritage with the house’s romantic French touch better than any she’s done before.
“Six months ago when we knew this was going to be my last Chloé show, I thought we need to bring Mangueira, and have a real carnival,” Hearst said during a preview. “And Paris isn’t going to know what’s hit them. We dressed them in their team colors, fuchsia and green, and they were so happy, they are actually going to use them for one of their competitions,” she said of the looks for the Brazilian dance school.
More from WWD
Indeed, the finale on the banks of the Seine turned into a dance party, with Hearst kicking up her heels and her models joining in, wearing her soft linen tailoring with volume sleeves, cowboy shirts and coats with silver collar tips and swirling topstitching, sculpted leather “calla lily” dresses and white gowns with floral leather and ceramic cutouts.
Leaving the Richemont-owned luxury house after three years is bittersweet, she said, pointing out that the sustainability team was one person when she arrived and is now 12.
As has been the case since the beginning of her tenure at Chloé, the designer set out to raise consciousness with this collection, she said, opening a book with sketches for dresses she started conceptualizing Jan. 1, inspired by lilies, orchids and other flowers to symbolize the brand’s climate success, which will keep blooming into the future.
“I think it’s my favorite collection I’ve ever done anywhere in 20 years,” she said, sharing how she was inspired by the Greek statue “Nike of Samothrace” at the Louvre, to design a gown with winged sleeves sprouting amazing metalwork blooms.
Draped suede pieces in vivid sunflower yellow, spiraling black leather ruffles and bouncy knits similar to those worn by the Mangueira further underscored the lightness to this collection, which also featured some great-looking wedge sandals and a new barrel-shaped “cactus” handbag.
Hearst said she wanted to send a message that the Chloé woman is ready to fly, even after she leaves at the end of the year. Up next, the Chloé x Atelier Jolie collection arriving in January, in collaboration with Angelina Jolie.
“I’m really excited for people to see the collection because they’re going to be surprised how the DNA of Chloé is really married with her aesthetic. It’s the lowest impact and most dead stock fabrics we’ve done for a capsule. And she was very demanding that we kept those standards high,” Hearst said.
“I’ve never worked with a celebrity, and I only did it because I know how thorough she is,” she continued. “My first meeting with her was a whole day. I showed her so many things and she didn’t like any of them. And by the second and then the third one, we improved.
“Her approach is that she doesn’t want to do traditional fashion. If you see her Instagram, there’s no people, it’s more about what the aesthetic is. But I really like the product. The whole collection is based on a cape that she wore when she was a kid that her mom made, so it’s a lot of references to her mom.”
During Hearst’s time, Chloé has become a certified B Corp, with transparency into its materials, including linen grown using low-impact farming techniques that is spun and woven domestically, silk that carries the Global Organic Textiles Standard certification, and leather sourced from French farms and tanned by a tanner that carries the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (or Living Heritage Company, in English) label. The brand began incorporating digital IDs into its clothing starting with the spring 2023 collection, for traceability and to promote circularity through resale.
“A lot of people have asked me if growth at Chloé is going to be sustainable after I leave. And I’m like, absolutely. It’s become part of the culture,” she said. “We have shown that you can grow revenue of a brand like this and it doesn’t sacrifice the beauty. The news, like what’s going on in Armenia, what’s going on in Ukraine, what’s going on with the massive issues with immigration, a lot of it is related to climate change. I think that the social component and the environmental component are the driving forces of the house now, and I couldn’t be more proud of anything.”
She’s been able to do it all while balancing the growth of her own namesake brand, too.
“The biggest fear with a lot of designers is when they focus on a new thing, they leave their home not to grow, but both Chloé and GH have grown at the same time,” she said.
Would she want another big creative designer job?
“We need to focus on GH, we’re opening the store in L.A., the retail is up, the numbers are crazy. And I’m a luxury designer, and a luxury designer is different than a fashion designer. A luxury designer evolves. I don’t do trends. I evolve on my own time. My priorities are fabrications and quality and I have the client who wants what we’re making.”
For more PFW reviews, click here.
Launch Gallery: Chloé RTW Spring 2024
Best of WWD
Solve the daily Crossword
