Photography Laura Jane Coulson
Styling Stella Greenspan
Interview Emily Sundberg
On Gabbriette Gabbriette: ALAÏA long sculpting dress
PRADA dress.
Hollywood’s hottest is not blonde. She doesn’t drive a BMW (in fact, she doesn’t even have a license). And she isn’t drinking Erewhon smoothies, she’s too busy testing recipes at home in her leather apron. Meet Gabbriette Bechtel: she’s changing how girls everywhere think about their eyebrow width and how dark they can take their hair dye.
MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH dress and skirt.
“I’ve always liked to cook, but now I’ve turned my hobby into my job,” Gabbriette tells me on set at the HommeGirls shoot in downtown Los Angeles. “I’ve been working on this goddamn cookbook. It’s taking forever. Everyone asks me every single day. I’m getting it done. I’m just procrastinating.” I ask what her first book will be like, and she answers mischievously, “I don’t want to give everything away… the idea is so specific. But it will have beautiful pictures, maybe some handwritten aspects to it and a QR code here and there.” A modern woman. Gabbriette’s sunny California-inspired recipes have amassed tens of millions of views, a (vegan) milkshake collaboration with L.A.’s Monty’s Good Burger, and the opportunity to design a (non-vegan) leather apron with R&M Leathers. “You can get them wet and dirty,” Gabbriette informs me when I ask her about how leather holds up in the kitchen. “I think they work better with time, they soften up.” She mentions leather oven mitts might be on the way. Before Gabbriette was Instagram’s favorite witchy chef, she was the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Charli XCX-founded punk band Nasty Cherry (which she describes to me as, “Fun girls who were driving around confused, and never fifinished their project”). Before that, she was dancing in music videos for Blood Orange. And before that, she was an Orange County high schooler. “I was a Tumblr girl,” she says. “I felt like such an outcast in middle school, I was wearing fur coats to school and everyone was in Laguna Beach wearing shorts. My mom was like, ‘You’re going to get made fun of and it’s not going to feel good.’ But I didn’t want to wear shorts, so I was on Tumblr and had these girls that I looked up to. If I had seen Alexa Chung in person at 13, I would’ve shat myself to go say hi to her.” Cooking isn’t her only job. Last year alone, her ink-black hair and razor thin brows starred in campaigns for H&M, Aritzia, Paris Texas, Betsey Johnson, Miaou, Rhode, Agent Provocateur. Let me catch my breath… Isamaya Beauty, MAC, Juicy Couture, Heaven by Marc Jacobs, Bottega Veneta, SKIMS, and Dieux. When I begin a question with, “Now that you’re modeling more —, ” she puts her plate of lunch down, looks directly at me, and softly says: “I want to get this straight. I’ve been modeling since I was 16. I’ve been doing it so long and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you just got into it.’ I think it’s only now because I’m doing bigger things, but I have been doing e-comm. I was on a little Nike kick for a while, but it’s been a long run. I’m seasoned.”
Vintage skirt courtesy of Palace Costume
BODE striped jumpsuit; MIU MIU faded suede loafers. Opposite page: MARNI sleeveless tight mini dress.
There are hundreds of makeup tutorials on YouTube and TikTok inspired by Gabbriette (many caution viewers to practice a steady hand for that liquid eyeliner). “They’re sent to me every day,” she tells me. “I know exactly what everyone’s saying, but I’m like, I get it. People are so mad at other people doing food videos or whatever. I’m like, I can’t be the only person doing one thing. And I never have been the only person. There’s so many other food content creators or people with skinny eyebrows. I’m not the fifirst one. I don’t give a fuck. I never have.” There are more Gabbriette fan accounts on Twitter and Instagram than I can count. “I’ve always loved her style and the way she expresses herself through clothing,” a woman named Izzy who runs @gabbriettecloset, an account that posts and links to all of Gabbriette’s outfifits, told me. “The expression of her identity inflfluences others to dress however they want without judgment.” Recent outfifits linked by Izzy include a vintage Dolce & Gabbana lace-up leather dress, a latex Atsuko Kudo French maid dress, and a black lace I Am Gia maxi dress. If the students at your local high school are searching “Goth outfifits” on TikTok, you know who to thank.
ACNE STUDIOS eyelash top and skirt.
“If I had seen Alexa Chung in person at 13, I would’ve shat myself to go say hi to her.”
Don’t have a strong sense of style? Gabbriette says that’s fine. “I felt so much pressure to have a personality in this industry at the beginning, and I didn’t know how to do that. It was really superficial of me to force things.” Then, she got rid of some “really negative” relationships which led to a process of self-exploration. “If you’re quiet, if the way you express yourself is in your journal at night, that’s fine. That’s what scares me about all these influencers. The young girls in New York City, I’m like, you don’t need to post everything, you don’t need to post your opinion. Sometimes it’s just like somebody’s really going to listen to that. Or a lot of people don’t even follow their own rules or their own mottos and stuff, which is, it’s just all, there’s so much misinformation…” She trails off and flips over her phone to reveal a photo of a high school boy with a mid-aughts haircut. We both start laughing. “I was getting my hair done the other day and she was like, ‘What does your boyfriend look like?’ and I said this,” she points to her phone. “And she was like, ‘How old is he?’ It was him in high school, so cute I know.” Gabbriette is dating Matty Healy, lead vocalist and songwriter of The 1975. After trying to meet for four years, the stars aligned. Her friend Charli (XCX) is engaged to his bandmate. They were both single. She made it to one of his shows. And now they order takeout and play Fortnite in bed. “He came to L.A. and we’ve been in love ever since.” I ask her if she goes to therapy? “No, I don’t. And I’ve always wanted to.” I say she seems solid. “That’s what people say, but I’m like, I feel like that means I should definitely go to therapy. I want to do blackout therapy. Have you seen that? My friend Quinn just did it for four days in the dark and she said she sobbed her eyes out. I’m really bad at being alone for long periods of time. I’ll FaceTime my friends. I used to be better at it, but I need to tell somebody what I’m thinking. I always just say what’s on my mind. I need to chill out a little bit. I’m like, ‘I just hit my vape.’ And they’re like, ‘I know you did.’ I’m just a chatterbox, so I need to learn how to be alone.” I ask what frustrates her the most about the career she’s building. “I don’t like people who lie for no reason to impress people or get places in life. I’ve worked with a lot of people. The name dropping thing, I’m like, nobody cares babe. And that’s eventually going to probably lose jobs. I know when I’m being lied to, and it makes my blood boil.” I ask her what the most important thing is that people should know about her. “I’m having so much fun and I love what I’m doing. I’ve never been happier in my entire life. This last six months, I’m like, I could cry. I’m so happy.” And with that, the timer on someone’s phone goes off. She walks back to set, stares into the lens with a look so cold I thought I heard the camera lens crack. The whole team, including Gabbriette, look at each other and burst into laughter.
DIOR dress and bra.
“I’ve worked with a lot of people. The name dropping thing, I’m like, nobody cares babe.”
RABANNE crinkled satin top.
“I’m seasoned.”
Makeup and Hair Homa Safar
Nails Isabel Coreas
Set Design Whitney Hellesen
Casting The Establishment
Production Helena Martel Seward
May 2024