29 September 2023 |
They say parting is sweet sorrow but Chloé’s departing creative director Gabriela Hearst wanted it to be a celebration. For her final show, the mood was lively and bright, set outside against the Seine on a warm, sunny Parisian afternoon. Tourists found vantage points, hoping for glimpses of the star-studded front row with the likes of Issa Rae, Venus Williams, America Ferrera and more. But perhaps the best view had to be from a particularly well-timed tourist boat, which happened to cross precisely as the first model walked out, much to their delight.
Hearst leaves behind a legacy of championing socially responsible designs, and her last collection continues that theme. Per the press release, consciousness is the fourth and final ingredient to achieving climate success, which continues the ideas on clean energy, regeneration and female leadership that the designer set forth in her prior collections. For Hearst, this is best symbolized by the flower and that motif was evident from the opening look, a ruffled one shoulder dress that looked like layers of petals. Other dresses reinforced the idea, with gauzy rosette swirls adorning the hips or jutting shoulders that featured undersides stuffed with blooms.
To complement the soft looks, Hearst also showed plenty of leather, including sharply tailored suits as well as billowy shouldered jackets, worn with hot pants. Draped dresses in a marigold yellow shade were a nice surprise, appropriately seasonal given the warm temperatures in Paris at the moment. For her final look, Hearst opted for a black and white leather dress, a rather serious note given that the runway shortly segued into an all out dance party, featuring a samba band. As the models danced, it seemed that while this chapter at Chloé may have ended, Hearst was leaving it with plenty of joy.
Photography courtesy of Chloé.
