Gabriela Hearst Talks Nuclear Fusion and Puma Women with WSJ Magazine February 2023 AOC Eye

Prior to connecting with WSJ Magazine for a recent touchbase, Chloe designer Gabriela Hearst was in Egypt in mid-November 2022 for the COP27 climate conference.

The annual UN Climate Change conference taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh put Hearst on a panel speaking about fusion.

The future is fusion, in the eyes of Gabriela Hearst, who isn’t particularly concerned if we can or cannot read her new passion into the clothes that make up the Spring 2023 Chloe collection.

It’s best to understand that Gabriela Hearst is running out of patience. She was never big on slogans and describes herself as fervently committed to fusion energy as the big unlock around sustainability.

If Hearst watered down that message in any way by turning the Chloe show into a rave experience, she’s not losing any sleep over the confusion. Some rave experiences result in a life-altering change of consciousness.

“You know when you’re ready to do something, it’s like, I’ll clean the toilets, I’ll do anything. I want to be part of this—I believe in it so much,” she told WSJ’s Amanda Randone. “I can talk about it, bring it to new people, use my cheekbones, whatever.”

What is exciting about Hearst’s enthusiasm is that a huge breakthrough in the drive for fusion power happened days after Hearst returned from Egypt.

December 2022 Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

On December 5th, 2022, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the first time forced atoms of hydrogen to fuse together in the same kind of energy producing reaction that fires the sun. It lasted less than a billionth of a second, but it happened — after six decades of research and development and countless failures.

The National Ignition Facility, or NIF, was built for $3.5 billion to ignite self-sustaining fusion. They tried nearly 200 times over 13 years to ignite the atomic 'engine' with no success. And then it happened.

Do not be surprised if physicist Kim Budil, who is in charge of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is on the runway in Chloe’s next fashion show.

This is how Hearst the PUMA rolls and she’s got two mini PUMAS coming behind her — twin daughters now 14 — who she describes as “very driven, high-performance females”.

Asked to use one phrase to describe herself, the response is “maniac with a purpose.”

Right on, Gabriela. Right on. ~ Anne