Designer Gabriela Hearst reflects on the value of craft in the age of AI
- Last updated: June 22, 2026 | 09:32
Uruguayan fashion designer Gabriela Hearst, who is known for her eponymous ready-to-wear clothing line, has turned to her home country’s national soccer team with new uniforms for the 2026 World Cup squad. Hearst, who turns 50 this year, was raised on a ranch, where she says clothing carried deep personal meaning. A family seamstress made garments to mark life’s milestones, often passed down through generations.
Hearst was the first Latin American to lead the luxury French fashion house Chloe, a role she held from 2020 to 2023. Hearst, who hails from a family of cattle farmers, has said it was her husband, John Augustine Chilton Hearst, a member of the US publishing dynasty, who pointed out how her upbringing could play into her fashion career. Speaking to Reuters while showcasing the tailored off-the-pitch sportswear at Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario – which played host to the first World Cup final in 1930 – Hearst reflects on national identity, the value of craft in the age of AI and how her upbringing in rural Uruguay continues to shape her environmentally conscious designs. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Soccer has long been South America’s global calling card. Is that now changing with fashion, film, and music gaining similar reach?
It is hard to match football’s popularity worldwide, so I see it as part of a broader multi-pronged mix, rather than something being replaced. For a long time, people didn’t even know where my country was, and now they do — and that’s largely thanks to football. Football opens the door, and then people discover the country beyond it.
Spanish-language culture has been gaining global traction. Do you feel South America is having a broader cultural moment?
For me, it’s an honor to be latina and to represent the quality and integrity of our culture — especially right now. Artists like Bad Bunny doing the Super Bowl halftime show, and even the Pope meeting with him, are examples of how wide the reach has become. I’m always very excited when the culture of my continent is represented, rooted in warmth, family, and strong values. I do think South America is having a broader cultural moment.
For audiences unfamiliar with South America, what would you want them to understand?
How fun it is.
You’re based in New York where you run your luxury fashion label Gabriela Hearst. How are you experiencing this moment for Latin American identity in the United States?
There’s a counterculture that’s happening to the political administration in the US, that in a way favors the characteristics that make (Latin Americans) likable. Family, color, food, sound, culture, joy. I’ve been living in New York for 26 years and people didn’t know where my country was when I arrived. Today people know where Uruguay is, exactly where it is.
Does working on this collaboration for a World Cup, partly hosted in the US, make it more personal?
Absolutely. It makes it more personal because both Uruguay and New York specifically have been my home for half of my life. An event like this can help shift perceptions of Latin American communities in the US, and that is very much needed.
How did your childhood in Uruguay influence your vision of fashion and the importance you give to sustainability?
Everything I know about quality and sustainability I learned in the Uruguayan countryside. People there, gauchos (cattle herders or ranchers, often described as the South American equivalent of cowboys) and rural workers, would get dirty during the day. But when they dressed up, they did so properly. My mother had a very small wardrobe in the countryside. She had beautiful clothes made by our family seamstress — everything tailored, but she didn’t buy new things all the time, or even every year. Clothes were tied to meaningful moments in life: getting married, having a child, and they were often passed down. Lace was handmade; I still have my grandmother’s nightgowns with hand-stitched lace. It’s about choosing quality over quantity. If you choose quality, you’re always on the right track.
Today I value what it meant to grow up with nature, eating food from the land, the quality and the natural luxury that surrounded me. I can say that I grew up with real beauty.
There’s a long tradition of craftsmanship in Uruguay. How do you translate that into something that resonates on a global stage?
I think the most important thing is the quality of our ingredients: from the food we eat to the materials that we use to dress. I focused the (off-pitch) uniform collection on repurposed Uruguayan merino wool, making it feel like a truly national project. I loved working with a material that already exists locally. Every suit for the players was crafted by hand, by a skilled, family-run Italian atelier. For me, it’s about combining that high level of detail and craftsmanship with the natural quality Uruguay already has.
At a time when fast fashion is accelerating, what relevance does something handmade have?
The digital revolution and climate change are two forces shaping humanity. I see this moment as very similar to the early Industrial Revolution — harsh and disruptive at first, but ultimately transformative. Just as that era also gave rise to creative movements, I think our current age will push us to value what is uniquely human even more. I believe creativity, authenticity, and handmade work will become increasingly important, offering a sense of meaning and comfort. The human part, the part of our brain that is unique to us, will matter more and more.
Reuters