Gabriela Hearst Is Launching a Pair of New Scents—Forget Everything You Know About Designer Fragrance

Jun 13, 2023

By Nicole Phelps

Gabriela Hearst loves fragrance. At her Chelsea office, when visitors drop in, a cone of incense is usually burning, and as she bounds into the room, you can detect a whiff of freshly applied perfume, something earthy and beguiling. Since founding her eponymous brand in 2015, she’s often thought about launching a signature scent—signature in her case meaning not like the big guys go about it.

Perfume is fashion’s cash cow, an entry-level item for those who can’t afford the high prices of runway clothes, and a reliably handsome paycheck for designers. Typically, brands outsource the making of their fragrances to massive multinational beauty companies, and in turn the results tend to be watered-down variations on a theme, with little that distinguishes one scent from another.

“This was done in a very purist way,” says Hearst of her own process. Taking the contrarian route, she tapped not a global conglomerate, but Julian Bedel, the founder of the boutique fragrance brand Fueguia. Bedel is a guy whose passion for nature and commitment to science mirror Hearst’s own. “You can meet him and name a country, any area in the world, and he’ll start telling you exactly what grows there,” she says. “He’s a connoisseur of plants.” And of vintage guitars, more than 120 examples of which line the walls of his Milan home.

Bedel has organized his company vertically, doing the botanical research, formulating the perfumes, and producing and bottling each and every one of them to his exacting standards. It’s an approach that resonates with the sustainably oriented Hearst, who pays close attention to fabric sourcing and relies on deadstock and recycled materials more than many of her designer counterparts. The fact that Bedel is from Argentina, a neighbor to her native Uruguay, sealed the deal.

Paysandú features the never-before-used-in-perfumery botanicals carqueja and marcela, harvested directly from Hearst’s family ranch.

Together they developed a pair of scents inspired by the “two geographies of her life.” Paysandú, a nuanced floral named for the region in which Hearst grew up, includes the never-before-used-in-perfumery botanicals carqueja and marcela, harvested directly from her family ranch. The scent was designed to conjure Hearst’s country roots and weekend vibes. Its counterpart is New York, a woody blend with a smoky undercurrent of tobacco, patchouli, and palo santo. “On first smell, it feels very sexy, very strong,” says the designer, “like you put your armor on.” Bedel has produced a single batch of the two scents, and there are just 315 bottles of each.

“We’ll encourage people, if they like them, to buy more than one bottle,” says Hearst, “because when they’re gone they’re gone.” Bedel adds: “If we do decide to make more, the second batch could never be the same as the first because the botanicals themselves are different from season to season.” Either way, their plan flies in the face of a century of designer fragrance precedent, which is a global business built on mega-hits, not limited edition one-offs. For context, 10 million bottles of Chanel No. 5 are sold every year.

Also unique: Hearst and Bedel consider the new scents genderless. “As a teenager, I never subscribed to the idea that ‘this is a perfume for women, this is a perfume for men.’ We all know now, that’s all marketing, but I just didn’t get it,” Hearst says, pointing out that a fragrance by Chloé (where she has been the creative director since 2020) and XS Pour Homme by Paco Rabanne were two of her go-to’s as a young woman.

Hearst has always done exactly what she likes, a case in point being her very first handbag, the Nina, which she declined to sell at department stores or even on her own e-commerce site. Customers had to send an email if they wanted the bag, and before long she had a waitlist 100 names long. With such limited quantities, those curious about Paysandú and New York should move quickly, otherwise they might find themselves on a waitlist too.

The new fragrances are available now at Gabriela Hearst and Fueguia stores, as well as at Bergdorf Goodman and Harrods in September.

Hearst and Bedel, in Paris.