An Inside Look At Gabriela Hearst’s World Cup Collab With The Uruguayan National Team

Uruguay’s history in the FIFA World Cup is a long and noble one. The hosts of the first ever competition in 1930, which featured 13 national teams, Uruguay were the favourites to win and trounced Argentina 4-2 in the final. The team went on to win the Cup a second time in 1950. Today, Uruguayan players figure in numerous premier club teams in Europe, South America, and the US.

For the 23rd FIFA World Cup, kicking off in the USA and Canada on June 11, Uruguayan-born and New York-based designer Gabriela Hearst has been tapped by the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) to create clothing for the 40-strong squad including management and coaches, mainly in made-to-measure suits and sneakers for all their off-pitch engagements. The suits are custom versions of existing styles (Irving for the jacket and Sebastian for the pants), which are available online and from her stores in New York and London.

Gabriela Hearst grew up in western Uruguay on a vast family sheep and cattle ranch in Paysandú. It was an upbringing close to the earth, and one that has informed much of her efforts as a designer since she founded her eponymous line in 2015. A keen advocate for the environment, she speaks regularly about climate change and has garnered numerous award both in fashion and from environmental bodies.

Sustainability and low-impact production are, naturally, core tenets of Hearst’s fashion output, so the origin of the lightweight merino wool used in the navy-blue suits made for the team was critical. The Merino is sourced from Uruguayan flocks in the north of the country and spun into yarn locally at Lanas Trinidad in the Flores region. Uruguayan merino is 100 percent biodegradable and produced without mulesing, a somewhat gruesome surgical treatment of Merino sheep to maximize fleece production on less ecologically minded farms.

The players’ suits are paired with ivory cotton Merino polo shirts and matching custom white leather “Ohio” sneakers, which feature a number of environment-conscious elements from leather certified by The Leather Working Group (a global standard for responsible leather manufacturing) to stitching and soles made from 30 percent recycled materials.

The jacket lining features a jacquard silk abstraction of the Uruguayan coat of arms. And Hearst placed the team crest, something usually seen on the breast pocket of blazers, inside the jacket “to be close to the heart”, as she explains in a video shot in Uruguay and in London, when she met the team for fittings just 40 days ago.

As the core of Gabriela Hearst’s Uruguay collaboration, the suits in their mainline version—albeit without the Uruguayan team motifs—are well worth investigating for both style and content. Merino is always a good bet for a suit, offering comfort and superior performance in any temperature. Its long-staple fibres make it particularly ideal for resisting creases, and keeping clothing looking fresh and unruffled whether you’re headed to the office or the World Cup Final.

This story originally appeared on Esquire.