Gigi Hadid Wears Guest in Residence While Out In New York.
Gigi Hadid has announced the launch of Guest in Residence, her inaugural direct-to-consumer, luxury, cashmere brand. Hadid is the Founder and Creative Director of the brand, conceived to honor and evoke a fresh appreciation and respect for the timeless designs, materials and craftsmanship of heritage heirlooms for all generations.
The brand’s name, unsurprisingly, was inspired by Hadid’s rigorous travel during her illustrious modeling career, which has quite literally taken her all over the globe – from Des Moines, Iowa to the Island nation of Nauru to Antarctica – between the fixed circuit of New York, London, Paris, and Milan. “Reflecting on years of travel and transience, away from creature comforts, no matter where I was a guest in residence – I always managed to find a home in myself – my internal residence of sorts. I strived to remain grounded despite the existential feeling that we are guests on this planet, and in our bodies. That we are guests when we travel. That we are guests in our clothes. That those clothes have passed through hands and may have had previous lives – and quite certainly will have future lives – cloaking other guests in the revolving, intergenerational door of life. The genesis of Guest in Residence is to honor past heirlooms and give life to new ones spanning generations,” said Hadid.
Second-hand, cashmere jumpers handed down by her multinational parents when she moved to New York in her teens, were always cozy, portable keepsakes for Hadid while on the road perfecting the art of sleeping on planes. Each piece had its own history, its own smell, its own personality injected with whomever had last worn it, and allowed Hadid to adopt a cherished family heirloom and make it hers. A sweater, to Hadid, isn’t clothing; it is a story, a marker of time and memory, and something that contextualizes her world. This is what inspired Hadid to design thoughtful knitwear that anyone can wear, style, love, and ultimately pass on to their beloved; mother to daughter or chosen family to chosen family.
A symbol of elegance and refined comfort, cashmere has long been viewed as a luxury, unattainable for some. Hadid wanted to shift this paradigm using both her world-class fashion experience, and quirky sense of style, to create a fresh offering with more democratized pricing offering an average price point of $300. The Guest in Residence core collection dubbed ‘funky classics’ by Hadid, are 100% cashmere featuring timeless, often unisex, silhouettes including cashmere jersey sets, joggers, hoodies, robes, beanies, scarves and socks in calming palettes of almond, cream, tumeric, navy, black and steel. Some pieces are sizeless and there is a cheerful infusion of vibrant contrasting colors of sunflower, royal blue, cherry, bubblegum, lime, and lavender. Hadid hopes this will encourage playful self expression and personal style twists.
For the launch campaign, Hadid chose a team from the powerful new generation of talent emerging in fashion, including photographer Pablo Di Prima and stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. Hadid believes they embrace new ideas and self-expression, while understanding the historical importance of cultural heritage. Titled, Yearbook, the campaign is a sort of visual time capsule – memorializing a time and place for a community. Holding the conviction that humans better with age, Hadid selected 100 people from infants to centenarians to illustrate Guest in Residence’s timelessness and intergenerationality. Many of the models featured are family and friends of Hadid, including Tonne Goodman, Grace Coddington, Luiz Mattos (Hadid’s life-long agent) and Waris Ahluwalia.
The Guest in Residence collection will be available at www.guestinresidence.com in the US at 9AM EST on September 7th, 2022. On September, 11th, 2022, Hadid will open the doors to her Feel Shop pop-up located at 12 Mercer Street promising surprises for all guests! The Guest in Residence collection will be available globally on www.guestinresidence.com on September 12th, 2022 at 9AM CET.
Photo: Michael Stewart
