Laure Heriard Dubreuil is a French entrepreneur and the founder and creative director of The Webster. The Webster is a luxury multi-brand retailer operating eleven physical boutiques in the U.S. and an online store. Prior to founding The Webster, Heriard Dubreuil worked in merchandising for both
Balenciaga
Balenciaga SA ( , , ) is a Spanish Basque luxury fashion house currently headquartered in Paris. It designs, manufactures and markets ready-to-wear footwear, handbags, and accessories, and licenses its name and branding to the American cosmeti ...
Heriard Dubreuil grew up in Paris, France as a member of the family that produces
Rémy Martin
Rémy Martin () is a French firm that primarily produces and sells cognac. Founded in 1724 and based in the Communes of France, commune of Cognac, France, Cognac, it is among the oldest cognac producers still in existence. and one of the "big f ...
cognac. She went to Sainte Marie de Neuilly highschool. She attended
Paris Dauphine University
Paris Dauphine University - PSL () is a Grande École and public institution of higher education and research based in Paris, France, Collegiate university, constituent college of PSL University. As of 2022, Dauphine has 9,400 students in 8 fields ...
, where she studied economics and
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. She became fluent in Mandarin and spent time in Shanghai as part of her Far East Studies. In the late 90s, she decided to attend New York City's
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...
(FIT) where she earned a degree in
Merchandising
Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...
.
Career
After graduating from FIT, Heriard Dubreuil returned to France where she worked as a merchandiser alongside Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga and, later, alongside Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent. In 2007, she decided to move to Miami to open The Webster Miami. The shop features items from a number of prominent brands including Balmain,
Azzedine Alaïa
Azzedine Alaïa (; , ; 26 February 1935 – 18 November 2017) was a Tunisian couturier and shoe designer. He became globally known particularly beginning in the 1980s for his women's dresses and he would dress numerous celebrities throughout his ...
, Pierre Hardy, and
Céline
Céline, sometimes spelled Celine, is a French female first name version of Latin origin, coming from ''Caelīna'', the feminine form of the Roman cognomen ''Caelīnus'', meaning "heavenly". The shop itself is housed in a renovated 1939
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
Collins Avenue
Collins Avenue, partly co-signed State Road A1A, is a major thoroughfare in South Florida, United States. The road runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean in Miami Beach, Florida, one block west. It also runs through the cities of Surfside and Su ...
in
Miami Beach
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...
.
In 2012 Heriard Dubreuil facilitated a partnership between retailer
Target
Target may refer to:
Warfare and shooting
* Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports
** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports
** Aiming point, in field artille ...
and The Webster to become a part of "The Shops at Target" brand. In December 2013, The Webster opened a second location at the Bal Harbour Shops in Miami Beach. In January 2015, Heriard Dubreuil helped design an all-white
capsule collection
A capsule wardrobe is a minimalist collection of clothes that can be put together in different ways to cover a variety of outfits and occasions. The aim is to have an outfit suitable for any occasion without owning excessive items of clothing. Thi ...
with French department store
Le Bon Marché
240px, Interior
( "the good market", or "the good deal" in French; ) is a department store in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. Founded in 1838 and revamped almost completely by Aristide Boucicaut in 1852, it was one of the first ...
owned by LVMH. The collection was created for Le Bon Marché's annual "month of white" and features designers like
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier SAS, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ...
,
Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...
and
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spic ...
. The collection was sold exclusively at The Webster and Le Bon Marché.
The Webster's fourth location in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, California opened in September 2016. Followed by the fifth and newest location in SoHo, New York City, in November 2017. Measuring approximately 12,000 square feet, the building, which dates to 1878, features six stories, including a penthouse and a David Mallett salon.
On 29 November 2017 Heriard Dubreuil launched her debut collection of her new line, LHD. The upper contemporary label offers ready-to-wear, accessories, and exclusive collaborations fit for a global lifestyle. A well-seasoned traveler with an admirable passport, Laure wanted to create a collection inspired by the destinations she loves most. With an emphasis on exclusive prints, electric color palettes, and vintage inspired silhouettes, LHD is at once glamorous, timeless, feminine, and, most importantly, effortless. LHD sells exclusively at lhd.us,thewebster.us, and The Webster boutiques.
Heriard Dubreuil has been a frequent participant in and proponent of the
Art Basel
Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...
Art Fair in Miami Beach. As a revered member of the fashion industry, Laure has participated in the prestigious WWD's annual CEO Summit, currently serves on the expert committee of LVMH's annual fashion prize which fosters young talent and recognized by Business of Fashion, for the past 2 consecutive years, among their top BoF 500: The People Shaping The Global Fashion Industry. Laure was a member of the fashion jury for the 32nd Fashion and photography festival at Hyères and most recently a judge for the Vogue Mexico 'Who's on Next' competition in 2018. In 2015 Laure became an ambassador of mothers 2 mothers, a global not-for-profit organization leading efforts in Sub Saharan Africa to end pediatric AIDS, ensuring good health and wellbeing for everyone, and achieving gender equality.
Personal life
Heriard Dubreuil is married to New York-based artist Aaron Young. In early 2014, the couple had their first child.