Gabriela Hearst is not a dabbler. Her spring collection was inspired by the tarot and all of the major arcana were represented. At a preview she was throwing cards with practiced assurance. When what looked like a negative card came up—not many other ways to think about five of Swords, which stands for Defeat—she said, “ah, we’ll fix that,” then advised a close study of the Hierophant as a visual affirmation ritual and suggested a mantra that all of us could use midway through Paris Fashion Week: “I am a creative and productive individual in my professional and family life.”
The major arcana, for the uninitiated, go from 0, for the Fool, to 21, for the Universe. “It’s the journey of the soul, and each of the cards represents moments in our lives,” Hearst explained. Meditating on the Lady Frieda Harris deck, which dates to the late 1930s, she sketched the new collection. Laura Dern opened the show in a dress made from 2,400 leather flowers meant to symbolize the fertility and expression of the Empress card. Several dozen looks later, the show closed with a dress made of suede and knit bisected with braided leather rope, representing the surrender of the Hanged Man.
What Hearst’s clothes stand for, more than anything, is fabric of the highest quality: tactile and, typically, preternaturally soft. This season, she used mostly her own deadstock, as a kind of reset. “We’re not buying fabrics, we’re going to use what we have. We love our materials, so why not?” she said. Words don’t really do justice to the velvety hand of an ivory tank dress with a shaggy skirt or a body-skimming T-shirt dress in knitted silk, the inverted triangle of the Devil card inset into the chest. On a tan suede coat and matching skirt with fringe embellishments accented with tiny gold skulls and other charms, the appeal was both tactile and aural.
About halfway through, the collection took a casual turn when Hearst’s drawings appeared as lively intarsias on brightly colored sweaters and matching jeans, representing water, air, and earth, in that order. What about fire, you ask? She had a long dress made of little stars hand-crocheted in Bolivia, modeled after the star on the Hierophant card. Wearing it is no guarantee of self-knowledge and wisdom, but every little bit surely helps.
