Meet the new eco fashion leaders calling for revolution
Four powerful designers are each finding new ways to change the industry,
Gabriela Hearst is unloading her baggage. Literally. The designer behind Chloé and her eponymous brand pauses mid-zoom to showcase the contents of her Chloé Jorge bag. From the recycled cashmere knit bucket bag she withdraws a thick Chloé notebook which teems with drawings and concepts for upcoming collections. Next is another notebook, this one for her work at the brand that bears her name, bristling with newspaper cuttings – “I keep all the articles I read on the climate”.
There are passports and tickets and purses and tech accessories and a roll-case of coloured pencils and then, finally, two palm-sized books covered in printed fabric. “These are my wish books,” she says, waggling them for the camera. “I find them very important, where you write wishes for yourself and others.”
The wish book is where she put her dream to be named creative director of Chloé. What was the last wish she wrote down? “Climate success. And nuclear fusion.”
With focus like Hearst’s, it could happen. Aged 45, with slicked-back hair and a sleek black Chloé merino polo-neck (“Merino is one of the greatest lower-impact fibres that you can use”), she is in London to accept one of the Leaders of Change: Environment honours at the Fashion Awards. On Monday night she took to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall, alongside Priya Ahluwalia, Phoebe English and Bethany Williams, with Stella Mccartney participating remotely. All were honoured as women at the vanguard of positive change in the fashion industry.
Their impacts are as unique as they are impressive. Ahluwalia produces her collections using upcycled, recycled or deadstock (leftover) fabric. “I want to show that there’s such a huge amount of resources and materials out there already.” English, who named a recent collection Nothing New, uses zero-waste cutting techniques and leftover fabrics. “I’m thrilled to see so many people working within this [sustainable] area of design,” she says. “It’s only when it becomes general practice that we make any progress.”
As for Williams, her last collection was fully produced by social enterprises. She donates a percentage of her profits to the Magpie Project, a charity based in Newham, east London, that supports women and young children living in temporary accommodation.
Hearst, who prefers to think of herself as “a catalyst” rather than a leader, grew up on a ranch in Uruguay, riding out to check on the herds of sheep, cattle and horses that ranged across its 17,000 acres. She uses wool from the ranch in her collections today. “For me, sustainability and luxury were never contradictory concepts,” she says. “The definition of luxury is something that is not abundant, that is well-crafted, that’s supposed to last you for a long time.”
In 2013, two years after inheriting the ranch and its responsibilities, she married John Augustine “Austin” Hearst, scion of the Hearst media dynasty. Two years later, she launched the Gabriela Hearst luxury clothing brand. Anyone who thought it was a vanity project didn’t think so for long. Hearst’s elegant, grown-up designs have been worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, Duchess of Susssex, Jill Biden and Ivanka Trump.
From the beginning, she’s taken an incredibly detail-orientated approach to her sustainable ethos. She was the first designer to produce a carbon-industry neutral fashion show, and her collections use deadstock fabrics, recycled cashmere yarn and ecofriendly natural fibres. When she opened her London boutique, she was most excited about the compostable, cardboard hangers, never before used in a luxury store.
All of which built a case for Hearst to bring her aesthetic and environmental priorities to a bigger stage. She was named creative director of Chloé last December, with a remit to usher the brand into a new, more responsible era. In the space of four collections she’s enacted impressive change: eliminating the use of cotton (a water-intensive monoculture) in favour of linen; converting to circular denim; retooling trainers to produce 35 percent less greenhouse gases than earlier models; and introducing Chloé Craft, handbags and leather goods made by independent artisans. “I started to realise how much luxury had industrialised itself, so we’re bringing in more products that are 100 percent made by hand,” she says.
Some designers want to ease customers into a more sustainable mindset without proselytising. Not Hearst. She’s fervent that change has to happen now. Her commitment and sense of urgency come through in every sentence. It’s why she flies Airfrance (“It’s good because they give you the exact accounting of the carbon footprint of your flight”). And why she went to Cop26 in Glasgow instead of taking a few days off at home in New York. And why she spends her free time studying next-generation nuclear power. “I find fusion very exciting,” she says. “You can create an infinite amount of clean energy.”
Her ambitions for the fashion are nothing short of transformational. “The larger your platform – the larger your luxury brand – the more responsibility you have. The change is coming and you have to decide to be part of that change.”
Hearst’s fellow award winners share her zeal about climate goals. “I’m hoping that what we do will influence big businesses,” Ahluwalia says. “They’re the ones that have a huge footprint.”
Last month, Chloé became the first luxury fashion brand to achieve B-corp certification, indicating that it “meet[s] the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose”. While Hearst takes care to note that the application process predated her arrival at the brand, she’s gratified that it’s happened.
For December, Hearst will donate all the net proceeds from sales of her own brand to Save the Children’s Afghanistan Crisis Children’s Relief fund.
“December and the holidays should be a time of compassion and thinking of others. So why not use fashion as a platform to bring attention to something important?” She expects to raise up to £400,000.
Because, of course, the festive season is also a time of shopping. It’s inescapable that the Fashion Awards fell on Cyber Monday, the culmination of a period of gluttonous consumerism. What makes the Leaders of Change hopeful about the future of the fashion industry?
“The next generation,” says Williams. “From working in universities and running our mentoring programme, it really
does inspire me that we’re in safe hands.”