“I like the
idea of
anti-retail.
Everyone
gets so
bombarded,
calm is
essential”Right: a model of
Foster’s vision for
Hearst’s Mayfair
flagship. Below:
a painting by Chief
Big Spring hangs
in the store’s
streamlined interior- also shown
below right
such titans as Foster to design them.
Since January, the duo has been working
together on Hearst’s first London
flagship, which occupies a corner of a
late-19th-century building in Mayfair,
opposite Claridge’s (shops next to plush
hotels are another of Hearst’s pet retail
theories). They met nearly 10 years ago,
and the mutual admiration is palpable.
Hearst jokingly refers to Foster as the
architect of her marriage – or rather,
credits it to his wife. It was Lady Foster
who suggested to Austin Hearst, scion
of the American media family, after
a group trip to see War Horse in 2010,
that his Uruguayan then-girlfriend
Gabriela was “a keeper”.
“I’ll be forever grateful to her
Latin spirit,” laughs Gabriela,
seated opposite Lord Foster in
his aircraft hangar of an office
overlooking the Thames on the
day of Vogue’s shoot, one sunny
midsummer afternoon. “Elena
is such a knowledgeable woman.
Probably, she has forgotten about
it, but for me and my husband
it was a special moment.” Foster
smiles beatifically. “My wife is
wonderfully intuitive.”Gabriela can’t have been a hard sell.
Erudite and determined, she has a
pronounced practical streak that,
while unusual in the Upper East Side
social scene, is even more uncommon
in the fashion industry, where she is
now one of New York’s most exciting
names. She credits it to a childhood
spent off-grid on the family ranch in
Uruguay, recalling how its remote
location engendered a can-do approach:
“Even in situations of danger, you have
to take matters into your own hands.
You have to get them done and you
cannot let emotions get in your way.”
Still, she has polish. It is impossible toread about her without encountering
the words “timeless chic”. Tall and
willowy, at 42 she is handsome rather
than beautiful, with the angular
deportment of a cubist Duchamp
figure, striding decisively around in a
sensible, double-breasted navy suit of
her own design.
Since launching her company in 2015,
partly financed by her husband, Hearst
has built a reputation for high-quality
designs that convey stylish capability.
Her clothes and her wildly popular and
extremely limited-distribution handbags- including the Nina and the Patsy,
which resemble gently enlarged dim sum
rendered in jewel-toned
satin – are worn by intelligent
women who understand that
a quietly stunning wardrobe
can be a powerful tool for
success: the Duchess of
Sussex, Arianna Huffington,
Lauren Hutton and Laura
Dern are all fans. Tailoring
is a signature, as are ankle-
skimming dresses that swish
purposefully, and cashmere
sweaters that go with
everything. Hearst is alsocarving out a reputation as a sustainability
expert. This year, she has changed all
the brand’s packaging to biodegradable
and compostable versions, and switched
up her supply chain from air freight to
shipping by boat to improve her carbon
footprint, a decision which prompted
a total rethink of her delivery timeline
to accommodate an eight-to-12 week
delay. Next on the list are reducing to
zero the use of non-virgin materials in
her collections and making her spring/
summer ’20 catwalk show, which will
take place in New York this month,
carbon neutral. As she insists, “for
many people, sustainability means
granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing,
tree-hugging. But sustainability and
luxury should go together.”
Hearst estimates that it will take
her roughly three years to transform her
label. “I have to figure out how I can
have a business that is sustainable in
every sense of the word: makes money,
employs people, but does not make a
negative impact on the world,” she says.
She will have to balance it with
extraordinary growth: this year she has
launched a menswear arm and received
minority investment from the luxury
conglomerate LVMH. In 2020, she plans
to open a store in Hong Kong, where
32 per cent of her handbag business
originates. Her vision of sustainable
luxury is, she says, “personal – I want
my children to know I did the best I
could.” She has five: 11-year-old twins,
a four-year-old, and two step-children,
23 and 24, from Austin’s first marriage.
It sounds like a busy life, I say. She
lives in the West Village in New York,
a city she describes as “the most stressed
out in the world”. How does she relax?
“I am not relaxed! Ever!” she responds,
with characteristic candidness. >SPOTLIGHT
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