For “Behesht,” Jasmin Larian Hekmat turned loss, architecture and renewal into one of Cult Gaia’s most personal runway statements yet.
Cult Gaia has built much of its reputation around escape: sculptural handbags, destination-ready dresses, dramatic accessories and the kind of pieces designed to become the center of a photograph.
For Spring/Summer 2027, founder and designer Jasmin Larian Hekmat went somewhere considerably more personal.
Presented in New York on September 9, Behesht — the Persian word for “heaven” — explored what happens after a period of loss. Hekmat lost her grandmother, Mommy Aghdas, earlier this year, and the emotional progression from mourning toward renewal became part of the collection’s foundation.
Rather than treating grief solely through darkness, Cult Gaia built a runway around contrast.
A Garden Against Concrete
The setting mattered.
Cult Gaia presented the collection at the Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History, where sweeping concrete architecture created an intentionally severe backdrop for a collection increasingly filled with softness, movement and organic forms.
It reflected the central idea behind Behesht: life finding room to emerge from somewhere hard.
The collection began accordingly.
Deep olive tailoring, strong shoulders and sculptural silhouettes established a more restrained opening. Chintz plissé was manipulated into structured shapes, while tailoring gave the Cult Gaia woman — and increasingly, the Cult Gaia man — a harder edge than the easy vacation wardrobe traditionally associated with the label.
But the runway did not stay there.
As the collection progressed, rigidity began to give way to movement.
Silk jacquards, frayed organza, metallic surfaces, floral elements and fluid dresses pushed the clothes toward something lighter and increasingly celebratory.
Cult Gaia Turns Accessories Into Clothing
Some of the collection’s most interesting pieces blurred the boundary between garment, jewelry and object.
Linked golden elements created skirts and dresses that moved like wearable sculpture. Elsewhere, intricate surface treatments, hand-assembled components and oversized accessories continued the brand’s long-standing fascination with turning everyday fashion pieces into objects worth examining.
That approach makes sense for Cult Gaia.
The company first became globally recognizable through accessories, particularly highly distinctive handbags designed to function almost as design objects themselves. Spring 2027 demonstrated how that same thinking is increasingly influencing the entire wardrobe.
The dress does not simply accompany the object anymore.
The dress can become the object.
Menswear Is No Longer an Afterthought
Spring 2027 also provided another look at Cult Gaia’s developing menswear business.
A relaxed black linen suit, fringed board shorts and unconventional plissé shirting suggested Hekmat is not interested in building a conservative men’s category simply to check another commercial box.
Instead, Cult Gaia appears to be asking what its established visual language looks like on a different customer.
That distinction matters.
The brand is expanding without completely changing personalities.
Why It Matters
For PMG, the larger story is what Cult Gaia is becoming.
The company has been gradually moving beyond the category that originally made it famous. Ready-to-wear has expanded. Menswear is developing. Fragrance has entered the picture. Physical retail is growing. And runway presentations now give Hekmat a larger stage on which to define the world surrounding the product.
That expansion comes with real scale behind it.
Cult Gaia reported approximately $100 million in fiscal 2025 revenue, compared with $75 million the year before — giving the company more room to invest in stores, experiences, product categories and the kind of brand-building runway moments that establish something larger than a viral accessory.
Behesht therefore works on two levels.
It is an intimate collection informed by loss and family.
It is also another chapter in Cult Gaia’s transformation from an accessories-driven success story into something closer to a complete fashion house.
WATCH: CULT GAIA SPRING/SUMMER 2027
See the collection in motion — from the sculptural tailoring and metallic constructions to the softer, increasingly romantic progression of the runway.
The collection eventually arrived at its clearest expression of renewal.
Hand-painted silk gowns, treated and layered to create almost feather-like movement, brought softness and color onto the runway before the presentation ended beneath falling pink flower petals.
It could have easily become spectacle for spectacle’s sake.
Instead, it completed the narrative.
The show began grounded in structure and restraint and ended surrounded by movement, color and flowers.
For a brand often associated with beautiful things designed for beautiful places, Spring 2027 gave that beauty more weight.
Cult Gaia was no longer simply designing the escape.
It was thinking about what you carry with you when you finally arrive there