It would be intriguing to see what designers may develop if they were asked to create a special collection or capsule inspired by UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. We have all been locked in our towns, cities and countries because of Coronavirus for the last year and maybe we have forgotten about some of the most beautiful natural, historical and archaeological sites all over the world.
We don't know if anything like a capsule about these places will ever happen, but, in the meantime, Gabriela Hearst tried to pay homage to some of these sites as a tribute to her Latin American heritage in her Resort 2022 collection.
Born un Uruguay, Hearst has often collaborated with craftspeople and indigenous artisans: in the past she worked for example with nonprofit organisation Manos del Uruguay, founded at the end of the '60s by five friends who were aware of the lack of job opportunities for rural women. A member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) since 2009, Manos del Uruguay nowadays employs around 600 female artisans producing and selling crafts from different workshops made with local materials such as wood, ceramics, leather, wool, guampa or mate.
Hearst's collection includes references to Latin American and in particular to the Jipitecas counterculture movement that had an influence upon her when she was growing up in the '70s.
Scholar Enrique Marroquin coined the Náhuatl-inspired term xipiteca or jipiteca, referring at a phenomenon of reappropriation and fusion with more modern inspirations. The term stood for a combination of Mexican hippie subculture with the indigenous cultural heritage. It was about reclaiming the indigenous ideology while getting liberated from state-sponsored and narrow-minded nationalisms. The jipitecas were into indigenous designs and supported values such as ecology and women's rights.
This reference was translated into the collection (that also featured some men's-specific pieces such as double-faced cashmere overcoats and raincoats) in two ways: first of all visually, with bohemian designs such as knitted ponchos and blanket skirts in multi-coloured yarns; fringed dresses and long tunics with recycled wood buttons down the sides, and a navy blue or white ribbed dress with agata stone slices integrated in embroidered and crocheted motifs.
Patchwork motifs were transformed into an interior design inspiration in a skirt and shirt in which the leather elements in white, nut-brown and chocolate formed a motif reminiscent of wooden flooring (Hearst's bag with a sliding panel that resembles a roll-top desk is a further reference to interior design).
The intarsia sweaters with motifs of landscapes were a tribute to natural monuments including Yellowstone in Wyoming (check out the sweater featuring the Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone's Midway Geyser Basin), Machu Picchu in Peru, one of the New 7 Wonders of the Modern World, and the Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan in Mexico (all these places are UNESCO's World Heritage Sites).
But there were also more subtle references, like the Zapotec motifs inspired by the geometry of the Mitla ruins on Monte Albán in Oaxaca, Mexico (another World Heritage Site), translated into a black lace skirt and a trench coat with a black lace insert.
The second way Hearst referred to the jipitecas was in something that you couldn't immediately see but that hinted at the countercultural movement's interest in sustainability: this collection was made using mainly deadstock and recycled materials, a practice that has become Hearst's modus operandi and that she applied also in previous collections and in the designs she and her team made for US First Lady, Dr Jill Biden.
To be more precise, this specific collection was made with 49% upcycled or deadstock material (including the denim used for the jacket and matching flares and the agates integrated in some of the designs, the latter were leftovers from Hearst's Spring 21 collection), so the designer is getting closer to her stated goal of 50% for 2021.
There were actually also a couple of more technological developments: boots from this collection also come with natural rubber soles, espadrilles feature a platform with algae-derived foam and the cork of the sandals is harvested without cutting down trees and it can biodegrade. Who said that fashion couldn't pay homage to one's origins and to World Heritage Sites with some ethical and sustainable solutions?
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