There are few people better acquainted with very expensive clothes than Gigi Hadid. Yet when it came to creating her own label, she returned to something rather more personal: the second-hand cashmere sweaters borrowed from her parents as a teenager — pieces she still owns today.
Founded in New York in 2022, Guest in Residence was three years in the making. Hadid began developing the idea while pregnant with her daughter, Khai, during lockdown, determined not to rush into the inevitable celebrity-brand playbook. “I knew that something would come to me that felt right, that had integrity to it,” she told Vogue.
Cashmere provided the answer. The brand sources much of its premium fibre from Inner Mongolia, with most pieces manufactured by specialist knitwear makers in China. Guest in Residence is also a member of the Sustainable Fibre Alliance, reflecting Hadid’s intention to create clothes with longevity at their core. “I want clothes that feel sustainable and realistic to have for a long time,” she has said. “If you look after cashmere correctly, it can last for decades.”
The result is what Hadid calls “funky classics”: beautifully made sweaters, cardigans, trousers and accessories that reject the idea that investment knitwear must be terribly serious. Think saturated colour, stripes and preppy proportions, all designed to be worn rather than preserved.
Even the name speaks to this philosophy. “We’re all merely ‘guests in residence’ in the pieces we wear,” Hadid explains — clothes have lives before and after us.
It’s a sentiment we rather like. For Fabric of Society, we’ve carefully curated our Guest in Residence edit around the pieces we believe earn their place in a wardrobe: exceptional cashmere, easy silhouettes and modern classics with enough personality to make getting dressed interesting.
