Gabriela Hearst to Tailor Uruguay’s World Cup Uniforms, a Homecoming

Gabriela Hearst’s newest project turned the national team suit into something bigger than pre-match polish: a made-to-measure uniform for Uruguay’s squad at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, cut from Uruguayan merino wool and loaded with national symbolism. The Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol announced the collaboration on April 10, 2026, framing it as both a sports partnership and a homecoming for the Uruguayan-born designer.

For Hearst, the assignment was as personal as it was public. She was born in Uruguay and raised on her family’s ranch in Paysandú, and the AUF emphasized that she comes from a seventh-generation rural family. Her own brand describes Santa Isabel as a 17,000-acre certified sheep-and-cattle ranch in the Paysandú region, and says wool farming has been in her family for six generations. That pedigree matters here. Hearst built her label on disciplined tailoring, natural fibers and a severe kind of elegance that always feels more useful than decorative.

The fit between designer and team is unusually neat. Hearst has long translated rural material into urban clothing, including suits made with wool from Santa Isabel in her Spring/Summer 2019 collection. Now that language is being scaled up for La Celeste, whose presentation will carry the weight of four stars and a legacy that still looms over world football. FIFA notes that Uruguay were the inaugural World Cup champions in 1930, and both FIFA and WWD describe the country as a two-time World Cup champion.

The federation sold the project as a statement of craftsmanship as much as style. AUF said the uniforms would spotlight Uruguayan merino wool and the country’s values of quality, authenticity and integrity. Ignacio Alonso, the federation president, cast the deal as a point of pride for Uruguay, while Rafael Normey, president of Federación Rural, called it a rare chance to show the world the quality of Uruguayan products.

Hearst said the project was an honor and a dream to do with the AUF and the national team, and her involvement gives Uruguay something many football powers still miss: off-pitch clothes that look like they belong to the same country as the crest. As Marcelo Bielsa’s squad prepares to write a new chapter in Uruguay’s World Cup history, the uniform itself has become part of the message. In an era when team presentation is increasingly fashionized, Hearst is making the case that the sharpest power dressing can still come from the place you are from.