The past two years have not left many optimists still standing but Gabriela Hearst, the creative director of Chloé, is among the few who remain.
Hearst believes – unlike many – that it is possible for fashion to be a force for good. A sustainability campaigner who staged the world’s first carbon neutral catwalk show under her own name before winning the Chloé job, she has helped to make designing with “deadstock” – leftover fabric – a mainstream industry practice, and to champion craft-made over industrialised production to improve the environmental and social impact of clothes.
The folding chairs from which Demi Moore, Lucy Boynton and the rest of the Chloé audience watched her latest Paris show will be donated to We Love Green, a Paris music festival that pioneers environmentally conscious event production.
What does optimism look like, on an environmentally conscious Paris catwalk? It’s a leather tote, hand-painted on one side with a melting iceberg, while on the other, the same iceberg is topped with a polar bear. Or a recycled cashmere sweater, knitted to depict ashen trees under a fireball sky on the back, but with the same landscape coloured in green grass and blue sky on the front.
Visualising “climate success” is crucial to turning climate anxiety into positive action, Hearst said.
The collection was inspired by a conversation with Isabella Tree, the British conservationist and pioneer of rewilding – a progressive conservation philosophy that aims to enable nature in repairing its damaged ecosystems.
Tree advocates fighting climate anxiety “by living in the solution”. Hearst, who is passionate about amplifying female voices in the climate emergency conversation, took the strategy literally, visualising climate success into something you can wear.
For Victoria Beckham, however, it is the war in Ukraine that has defined the tone of Paris fashion week, with the designer cancelling a celebration of her new collection, which she and husband, David, had planned to host.
“What is happening is horrific,” she said. “Cancelling the dinner is not about how it would look. It just doesn’t feel appropriate when so many people are suffering. And I don’t think it’s what anyone feels like doing. I wouldn’t have wanted to be there.”
In a blow for London fashion week, Beckham said she intended to return to catwalk shows next season, but may choose a different fashion capital.
“I still think a show is the best way to see fashion. But I like to move around, so who knows where it will be,” she said in the showroom where her new collection was presented to editors and buyers.
Beckham is expanding her label with more accessibly priced clothes, and recently hired as design director Lara Barrio, who has previously worked at Salvatore Ferragamo and Loewe. “She’s got incredibly good taste. I think together we can execute something really fresh and modern. I find her really inspiring.”
New pieces include a leather pouch with a chunky gold wrist strap that, Beckham said, was inspired by the Patek Philippe watch her husband bought her when she was made an OBE. A puffer-style coat, quilted in a VB monogram, could be worn as a sporty mini-dress, with tights,” she said.
For now, Covid is in the rear-view mirror. “I’m bored of it,” Beckham said. “I think we’re all bored of talking about it.”
