Born in Uruguay, Gabriela Hearst grew up on her family’s 17,000-acre ranch, Santa Isabel in Paysandu, surrounded by horses, cattle and sheep, where the notion of luxury meant things were beautifully crafted and made to last. Gabriela attended the British School in Montevideo and studied Communications at the O.R.T. University of Uruguay.
After more than a decade spent in design in New York, Gabriela honored her family’s heritage through the launch of her eponymous label in Fall 2015, as well as taking over the operations of her father’s ranch in Uruguay.
Gabriela wanted to create a brand that reflects a slower pace and process: where things are made with care and detail, where tradition is more important than trend, where there is a purpose to every piece.
Gabriela’s commitment is to make a strong and modern collection without compromising her ethics and key values, taking into consideration where materials come from and who is making them: luxury with a conscience or in other words, “honest luxury”.
Each garment is an item into which Gabriela can pour her desire—made with impeccable construction and uncompromising, noble materials. Together, they tell a story of the places she loves that made her who she is: Uruguay and New York. Jackets and coats are lined with this special silver fabric that prevents cell phone radiation from reaching women’s reproductive organs. Aloe-treated linen, a much more complete fiber than cotton because it absorbs less water than cotton and at the same time you can eat the flax seed so it has additional nutritional values. Combining the utilitarian and the beautiful, she wanted to design long-lasting garments that hold memories for the woman who wears them. She is a real woman, alluring and powerful, but there is much action in her life and these clothes are her uniform, her armor.
In 2016, Gabriela Hearst introduces Handbags. In the interest of maintaining her values of sustainability, she decides to produce the bags in limited quantities and available via request only.
In February 2017, Gabriela Hearst presents its first runway show using about 30% deadstock fabrics, eliminating the use of plastic from both Front and Back-Of-House and repurposing all the elements of the show.
The company introduces TIPA flexible packaging, which offers bio-based alternatives to traditional plastic packaging that are fully compostable within six months.
In July of that same year, Gabriela visited rural Turkana County, Kenya, with Save the Children upon learning east Africa was facing its worst drought in 70 years, putting 20 million people at risk of famine. After witnessing the unfairness of climate change first- hand with mass screening for malnutrition, water scarcity, complete loss of animal stock, a currency and a source for vital survival, Gabriela Hearst pledges $600K for funds needed to cover the needs of 1,000 families in the area she visited. So for the first time ever, over a single week, the handbags were available to purchase with its retail partners Net- A-Porter and Bergdorf Goodman. The money was raised in 2 days..
In 2018, Gabriela Hearst opened her first flagship store, located on Madison Avenue in the Carlyle House, a New York institution. Following her mission on sustainability, the store was built without synthetics or chemicals, using natural, non-treated reclaimed oak, built-in light occupancy sensors throughout the space to reduce electrical consumption. 90% of the material waste generated during the construction process was recycled.
By April 2019, Gabriela Hearst achieved the goal to be plastic-free for both front and back of house with the use of compostable TIPA packaging and introducing recycled cardboard hangers.
In June, Gabriela Hearst launches its Menswear collection at its own retail stores, as well as Mr. Porter and Bergdorf Goodman.
In August, Gabriela Hearst opens its London store in Mayfair, at 59 Brook Street, designed by Norman Foster and sustainably built using reclaimed wood and non-toxic, vegetable dyed leather and linen curtains rather than cotton. Simultaneously, Gabriela Hearst opens a shop-in-shop at Harrods, also designed by Norman Foster.
For Spring Summer 2020, Gabriela Hearst produces the first ever carbon neutral runway show. A donation was made in each guest’s name to non-profit Our Children's Trust.
December 2nd-9th 2019, Gabriela Hearst donated 100% of net proceeds from all products in its flagship stores and website to Save the Children to support child nutrition and relief efforts in Yemen.
In February 2020, Gabriela Hearst announced its partnership with EON, a leading digital identity platform for the fashion and apparel industry, connecting products throughout their lifecycle by unlocking visibility, traceability, and insight through a QR code. The goal is to provide customers with more transparency by sharing the supply chain and giving them access to learn about their garments journey.
The premise of the Gabriela Hearst Autumn Winter 2020 collection was to devise further techniques to work with waste that would not compromise the quality or aesthetic values of the company. Antique remnants of Turkish rugs were pieced together for outerwear, existing pieces of cashmere outerwear from prior collections were deconstructed and re-assembled with blanket stitch, and recycled cashmere was reprinted and repurposed. This idea permeated both the collection and creative direction of the show. Recycled shredded paper bales from a recycling facility in Brooklyn were used as set design. The paper bales were kept in their original size and condition and then returned to the recycling company.
Gabriela was nominated in 2017 for the CFDA Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent. She was a nominee for the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year for 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022, and a nominee for the CFDA Accessories Designer of the Year for 2020 and 2021. In 2020, she won the American Womenswear Designer of the Year Award at the CFDA Fashion Awards. Gabriela Hearst was a co-host of the 2022 CFDA Fashion Awards.
She is the winner of the 2016/17 International Woolmark Prize for Womenswear, 2018 recipient of the Pratt Institute Fashion Visionary Award, 2021 recipient of the Frank Alvah Parsons Award for Sustainability, and 2022 recipient of the Infinity Trustees Award by the International Center of Photography.
The British Fashion Council awarded Gabriela as an Environment Honoree for her contribution in creating positive change within the industry at the 2020 Fashion Awards. Gabriela was selected as one of the five Honorees in the Environment category among the fifteen Leaders of Change at the British Fashion Council’s 2021 and 2022 Fashion Awards.
In 2018, she was appointed to the board of trustees of Save the Children. From December 2nd-9th 2019, Gabriela Hearst donated 100% of net proceeds from all products in its flagship stores and website to Save the Children to support child nutrition and relief efforts in Yemen. From December 1st- 25th 2021, she donated 100% of net proceeds from the flagship stores and website to support their Afghanistan Crisis Relief fund, and from December 1st-25th 2022, she donated 100% of net proceeds from the flagship stores and website to support their Global Hunger Crisis Response.
On December 7 2020, she was named Creative Director at Chloe.
In December 2021, Gabriela Hearst was nominated by the Financial Times as one of the 25 most influential women of the year.
The Spring Summer 2023 show was a celebration of women with an army of activists and friends cast alongside models, including former president of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, climate activist Xiye Bastida, anti-toxic shock syndrome activist Lauren Wasser and author Roda Ahmed. The Resistance Revival Chorus (RRC), a collective of women and non-binary singers, performed “This Joy,” (commonly known as 'This Joy I Have') a gospel song written by Pastor Shirley Caesar.
In November 2022, Gabriela Hearst participated at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (CoP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt) to discuss the critical role fusion power has in the fight against climate change.
In December 2022, Gabriela Hearst opened its first retail residence in Seoul, Korea at Hyundai Department Store Apgujeong Main Branch.
In January 2023, the Gabriela Hearst ensemble worn by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to the 2021 presidential inauguration evening celebration joined the Smithsonian’s First Ladies Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History’s. The ensemble includes an ivory double-breasted cashmere coat, an ivory silk wool cady dress and face mask, with embroidery reflecting the federal flowers from every state and territory of the U.S. as a symbol of unity.
The Autumn Winter 2023 show was inspired by Irish artist, architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray, who was a pioneer of the modernist movement that began in the 1920s. Gabriela Hearst collaborated with Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura on the set design, inspired by Ricardo Bofill’s utopian 'The City in Space’ (La Ciudad en el Espacio), and with Tricker’s, one of the longest-established shoemakers in England founded in 1829, on the exclusive development of archival officer boots as well as a new brogue style made exclusively for the collaboration.
In September 2023, she was honored with the 2023 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion by The Couture Council of The Museum at FIT (MFIT).
She was the Creative Director of Chloé from December 2020 to September 2023, and the first female Latin American designer to take the helm of a Paris fashion house. During her role, Chloé was the first European luxury fashion house to receive B Corp certification and she dedicated the Chloé Spring Summer 2023 collection to creating awareness around fusion energy, learning from engineers, scientists and both the private sector (Commonwealth Fusion System and Helion Energy) and the public sector (Iter and the UK Atomic Energy Authority) to work on the collection.
On November 9, 2023, Gabriela Hearst opened the first store and flagship on the West Coast on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, designed by Foster + Partners led by Norman Foster and featuring a bespoke ‘Nomad’ furniture collection by Benji Gavron and Antoine Dumas of Gavron Dumas Studio, with an emphasis on natural materials inspired by Gabriela’s family ranch in Uruguay.
From December 1st through December 25th, Gabriela Hearst donated 100% of net proceeds from all products in its flagship stores and website to Save the Children to support its Children’s Emergency Response Fund (CEF).
In December 2023, Gabriela Hearst participated in the “An Inclusive Fusion Energy Future” panel, part of the Global Energy Forum, at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (CoP28) in Dubai (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES). At this event hosted by the Atlantic Council, the U.S. officially launched its first international fusion strategy, presented by John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
In March 2024, TIME announced Gabriela Hearst as one of the honorees of the 2024 TIME Earth Awards, which recognizes individuals influencing the future of the planet through their work on climate justice, awareness, and activism.
In April 2024, Gabriela Hearst designed the costumes for the world premiere of female-first 'Carmen' at San Francisco Ballet as part of Dos Mujeres, the company’s first-ever double bill of works by Latina choreographers. In her stage design debut, Gabriela Hearst created the costumes crafted entirely from merino wool, the most sustainable fabric.