This week, fashion designer Gabriela Hearst debuted her latest ready-to-wear fall 2025 line at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris as part of the city’s fashion week. Those in the crowd may have noticed some familiar faces—namely, artist Rashid Johnson—among the models.
This collaboration between art and fashion is hardly new, though it’s not often that contemporary artists walk the runway themselves. For the show’s 11th look, Johnson wore a black turtleneck, wide-legged black trousers fitted with a belt, and a knee-length dark brown coat.
In his art practice, Johnson is known for his sharp meditations on race and class rooted in a more organic vocabulary steeped in sculptural and painterly traditions. His work, which will be the subject of a much-anticipated mid-career survey at the Guggenheim Museum next month, has brought together a range of materials including plants, scaffolding, soap, shea butter, paint, and mirror and ceramic fragments.
“I like to tell stories,” Johnson told ARTnews in a 2018 interview. “I’m interested in the way materials affect painting, and how it’s read, its legibility.”
Uruguayan American men’s and womenswear fashion designer Gabriela Hearst launched her sustainable, eponymous label in 2015. She previously helmed Chloé as creative director from 2020 through 2023, but left to focus on her own brand.
Her latest ready-to-wear collection features tailored pieces created using sustainable practices such as using deadstock fabrics and eliminating plastic use. While it boasts more eco-conscious living, the latest garments aim to blend comfort and style with a feeling of timelessness. In addition to Johnson on the runway, stars like Jessica Alba attended the Paris show.
