EXCLUSIVE: Gabriela Hearst Promotes Michele Cohen to President

Designer Gabriela Hearst has promoted Michele Cohen, her longtime head of sales, to the new role of president, effective Thursday, WWD has learned.

Cohen succeeds chief executive officer Thierry Colin, who left to pursue other ventures, the company said.

Hearst credits Cohen for playing an instrumental role in the growth of her New York-based fashion house, which opened its first freestanding retail store in New York in 2018, and attracted an investment from LVMH Luxury Ventures in 2019.

“She really helped build Gabriela Hearst, based on our philosophy and our values and how we grow things,” the designer said, revealing the management change in an exclusive interview with WWD. “We did the pandemic together, and those years we were only down 10 percent, and it was because of her. Michele was cross-selling everyone.

“For me, this is a very proud moment, someone within the core of Gabriela Hearst becoming the leader of the house,” Hearst added.

Cohen has been tasked with piloting the brand’s next phase of global growth, doubling the store network over the next three years, and expanding core categories such as knitwear and suiting, along with newer ones like footwear and fine jewelry.

Today, company-owned retail generates about 55 percent of revenues, with the balance in the wholesale channel, and Hearst aims to grow the retail portion to 70 percent within the next three to four years.

Besides its Madison Avenue store, the brand also operates flagships in London and Los Angeles, plus five outposts in South Korea, two with partner Hyundai Main.

Following a successful, six-month pop-up at Le Bristol hotel in Paris, Hearst is angling to open a freestanding boutique in the French capital in 2027.

“We have a retail strategy that is very specific to us, which is to open near or adjacent to a five-star hotel. So we’ve been waiting for a long time for a potential store in Paris,” Hearst said. “Definitely a footprint in Europe is needed.”

The U.S. also offers expansion potential, with a short-term residency at Highland Park Village in Dallas slated to open next month.

“These residencies will allow us to test different markets,” Cohen said, noting the brand has done pop-ups across the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. and recently opened a permanent shop-in-shop at the new Galeries Lafayette in Mumbai.

Gabriela Hearst counts about 65 retail partners and 90 doors, and “we’ve grown with a very disciplined approach toward the business and the wholesale network,” Cohen said. “Wholesales will remain an important part of the business, and has been central to how we’ve grown… We have a very good distribution mix and strong partners that will continue to play a key role, but we have a very growing and productive retail network.”

Hearst and Cohen flickered onto the Zoom screen for the interview with WWD on Wednesday morning as the industry absorbed the news that Saks Global had filed Chapter 11.

While Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman are important wholesale clients, “we’ve been prepared, taking measures and are still hopeful on their future,” Hearst said, noting “our last shipments were December.”

She and Cohen sounded sanguine, given the “diversification” of its channels in the U.S., which include its two freestanding stores, a thriving e-commerce site that grew 30 percent last year, and distribution in top independent specialty stores like A’maree’s, Hirshleifers and Elyse Walker.

“We can navigate this storm,” Hearst said.

“It’s really about optimizing our omnichannel network,” Cohen said. “E-commerce has really played a pivotal role in our growth and will continue to as we move forward.”

She also touted the importance of “growing our retail environments, providing the utmost customer service and being able to story-tell properly in these retail environments.”

She and Cohen are gearing up for the brand’s fall 2026 during Paris Fashion Week in early March — and the FIFA World Cup 2026 this summer, as Gabriela Hearst will be outfitting the Uruguay national football team.

“I’m very honored to do this,” Hearst said. “When I moved to America, no one knew Uruguay. And now, thanks to soccer, there’s a lot of awareness about my country.”

Hearst grew up on a 17,000-acre ranch there and launched her eponymous brand in 2015 with a commitment to sustainability. She plans to use Uruguayan wool for the team outfits.

On Wednesday, Hearst touted good business momentum last year, with double-digit growth in its retail network, and a “very strong” start so far in 2026.

“The reason why we’re seeing the success is because we’re very focused on the quality of our product,” the designer said.

Before joining Hearst in 2016, Cohen was director of sales at fashion house Altuzarra. Before that, she held the same title at Yigel Azrouel and Alberta Ferretti.

She started her fashion career as a junior account executive at Elie Tahari, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Cohen told WWD her decade at Gabriela Hearst has “reshaped the way I look at building a luxury brand. She has proven that creativity, responsibility and commercial success don’t have to compete against one another, but they actually reinforce each other.”