Candela Women's Fashion Brand

Candela NYC was established in 2004 by Gabriela Perezutti and has become a unique line of women's ready-to-wear and footwear. The company is headquartered in New York City, and Candela NYC has been gaining international recognition from fashionistas and other fashion influencers. A small New York label earning attention well beyond its size is the story here - and unusually for a city brand, the design source is a childhood spent about as far from Broadway as it is possible to be.

Born in Uruguay, Gabriela Perezutti Hearst grew up on her family's ranch, surrounded by horses and cattle. After attending university in Uruguay, she moved to Europe to pursue modeling. From there she ventured to New York City, and founded the women's fashion company Candela. The label's working address is 584 Broadway, Suite 606, New York, NY 10012 - a SoHo headquarters for a brand whose imagination stayed on the ranch.

The Ranch, Remembered in Clothes

Drawing inspiration from the nostalgia of her rural childhood on the ranch, and her love of nature and horses, Candela is the embodiment of Gabriela's wistfully romantic past. That sentence is the whole design brief. Romantic ready-to-wear - soft dresses, nostalgic details, natural textures - filtered through the memory of horses, cattle and open land, then made for city women to wear in New York and wherever the label's international recognition carried it.

The pairing of ready-to-wear with footwear in one small line makes sense in that light: the ranch wardrobe is head-to-toe, and a designer raised among horses thinks about boots and shoes as part of the outfit, not as an afterthought category. The two photographs in this page's gallery - a 2014 Candela dress and sweater, shown full-size through the gallery links - give the flavour directly: romantic pieces, softly styled, a long way in spirit from the Broadway address printed beneath them.

Shopping Candela

Judge Candela pieces by the quality the romantic brief demands: soft fabrics should feel substantial rather than flimsy, romantic detailing should be finished cleanly at seams and edges, and footwear should be tried as seriously as the clothes - walked in, on hard floors, in the size either side of your usual one where possible. This is small-label clothing, bought for a point of view rather than for a logo, and the point of view is consistent enough that one good piece usually explains the rest of the line.

Care follows the fabrics: romantic dresses and soft knits want gentle washing or specialist cleaning as labelled, flat drying for knitwear, and storage away from direct light that fades the soft palette the brand favours. Because the label is small, secondhand Candela is found piece by piece rather than in floods - which suits its clothes, each of which carries the embodiment of its founder's wistfully romantic past: a Uruguayan ranch, remembered in New York, worn anywhere.

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