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This season, Carolina Herrera joined the myriad brands taking their pre-collections on the road with its first-ever destination show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The location was chosen to enhance the Latin American roots of the brand — it was founded by the Venezuelan designer in New York in 1981, and has been under the creative direction of Wes Gordon, an American, since 2018. It also reinforced the synergy between the ready-to-wear and the brand’s thriving beauty and fragrance business, which are all owned by the Spanish conglomerate Puig. That the show was nearly a washout on Thursday night managed not to dampen the mood.
“There’s a lot of amazing destinations for us to explore for the brand — and perhaps there are others on the horizon,” says Emilie Rubinfeld, president of Carolina Herrera. “But [the idea of] Brazil came together quickly; it’s a very important market for our fragrance business. And then the beautiful nature, the culture, the spirit; it just really lends itself to a Carolina Herrera project.” A week of events culminating in the show included celebrations for the launch of a new Carolina Herrera perfume, Good Girl Blush.
Building global brand awareness was also part of the show’s purpose, Rubinfeld says. “Carolina Herrera fashion is a New York-based business — and we’re incredibly proud of that, but we’re a global brand, and we touch a global consumer.” When New York brands have taken their shows abroad, it has been to Paris, often as a statement of their standing within and to the fashion industry itself. While other luxury houses including Versace, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci and Chanel have all hosted destination shows this resort season, for Carolina Herrera, the goal was to meet customers where they are. “For an American fashion house to come on the world stage and say, we’re going to do a destination show — it’s great for Herrera, but it’s great for American fashion,” she explains.
After five years at the helm of the label, there is also a push to firmly establish Gordon’s presence and contributions to the house codes as an intrinsic part of the brand’s history. “If you talk to Wes about the inspiration of this collection, he wanted to highlight the brand codes of Herrera, and also [his own] codes, as the first creative director after the founder. There’s so much love for Carolina in Latin America, there’s an appreciation for the brand here. And with Wes coming here, it’s an opportunity to say, ‘I’m the creative director here, and we’re part of the journey of the brand’.”
As is par for the course now when a brand travels to a new country for a show, Carolina Herrera also partnered with local non-profit organisations while in Rio. It worked with Spectaculu, which offers professional training and guidance for socially disadvantaged youth, to add a sewing class to their curriculum for the upcoming year. The brand also worked with Carbon Free in order to neutralise the carbon emissions on the trip by directly investing in renewable energy projects. “When you’re a guest in a city — any city — it’s important to be respectful to the host city that we’re visiting. Ensuring that we’re not leaving a carbon footprint is also a show of the sustainability efforts of Puig as a parent company.”
The show took place high above the hills of the Santa Teresa neighbourhood with promises of sweeping views of Sugarloaf Mountain, Guanabara Bay and the iconic statue of Cristo Redentor (lit up in “a shade of Good Girl Blush”) at sunset, but — keeping up with the trends of rainy resort shows this season — the weather had other plans. Torrential downpours threatened to cancel the show; and the after-party celebration began before the show took place.
After an hour, once winds let up, photographers and a select group of editors were invited to view the show. An all-Brazilian cast of models sporting bright-red lips (the better to showcase the genuine smiles while they walked down the soaked runway) wore white button-down blouses, black and white polka dots, feminine floral ruffles and crochet separates while carrying their heels in their hands to prevent slipping on the slick, blush pink vinyl runway. The collection captured the Tropicália Rio feel while reinforcing the many codes that Herrera — and Gordon — have established for the house. When Gordon emerged to take his customary bow, he was visibly emotional, and the models cheered and danced around him, celebrating a show that for a second seemed like it may not happen at all.
Backstage, the mood was buoyant if visibly emotional. Gordon explained the show took place because the models had pushed for it, keeping the mood up throughout the deluge by singing, cheering and dancing.
The rain was obviously not the plan, but perhaps nothing would’ve been quite as evocative of the Brazilian spirit. “At Herrera, we always like to chart our own course, we’re always open to exploring new paths. And if you do things the same and you don’t take risks, then you know you are at a standstill,” Rubinfeld says. “Resort plays a really important role in our overall strategic output of collections, and it’s one that deserves a show, frankly, given how important it is to our overall business.”
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