“The Future Is Close”: Gabriela Hearst On The Fusion Power That Inspired Her Chloé Show For S/S'23

This season, Gabriela Hearst dedicated her Chloé collection to creating awareness around fusion, the benign source of energy that could replace coal plants in the future. She arranged the seats of her show – set within a blacked-out Pavilion Vendôme – to mimic the circular shape of the so-called tokamak used to generate fusion power, and surrounded the structure with hoops hanging from the ceiling and laser lights that evoked an industrial rave. That feeling reverberated through a collection that served as a figurative ode to fusion power, adapting the curves of the tokamak into silhouettes and surface decoration that looked part power plant uniform and part retro warehouse party. Anders Christian Madsen spoke to Hearst about the collection.

How did you start the season?

We started with the previous show by looking and researching climate solutions for climate success, because we all talk about the climate crisis, but I feel like I’m tired of just calling out the problems and not bringing out solutions to discuss and learn about.

What were your considerations?

We started with energy, because – after years of research and being born on a ranch and understanding that we belong and nature doesn’t belong to us – I came to the conclusion that sustainability is an energy problem.

In which way?

We’re still moving the world around 85 percent fossil fuels. That’s what it takes to move our world. But we have these other energies on the other side – solar panels and wind – that cannot currently take that capacity. So, we need these energies in the middle.

What are they?

In the energies in the middle, we have hydrogen, nuclear – which is France is famous for – and fusion, which is basically the energy of the stars and the universe. [I’ve worked with ITER as well as Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion] who are working to harness it in earth.

Tell me about fusion power.

There’s good news. With fusion, we have the potential of clean energy coming sooner than people expect. What we’re using as the main inspiration for our show is the tokamak, which is the device that they both work in. It has the shape of a doughnut so our runway is round, and we’ll have a laser show.

It’s a lot to take in.

The most important thing you have to think about is that this is a source of clean energy with very little waste – a peaceful source of clean energy. A glass of fusion fuel can power a house for approximately 800 years. A few grams is all you need for your entire life. We’re taking the opportunity to use our platform to show people that show people something you’d normally learn about in science journals.

So it doesn’t feed into the making of the clothes?

Well, eventually it will because we’ll need the energy to make the clothes. Imagine that whatever is a coal plant now will be a fusion plant in the future. The future is close.