Cult Gaia is gearing up for a Euro summer. The brand’s first pop-up of the season opened this week in Cannes, while in St. Tropez, a follow-on from its successful run in the Riviera town last summer is soon to open its doors, just before the brand heads to Ibiza’s Jondal beach club. It’s all part of founder Jasmin Larian Hekmat’s plan to build out the Cult Gaia universe.
The brand is fresh from a milestone year. Cult Gaia finished fiscal 2025 with $100 million in revenues, versus $75 million the year prior, a sharp uptick that the founder credits to sticking to her guns for the past 14 years.
When the brand launched in Los Angeles in 2012, Hekmat says that those around her had strong feelings about how she should approach the design and building of her brand. “I was told along the journey that I need core, core, core; commercial, commercial, commercial; wholesale, wholesale, wholesale,” she says. Instead, Hekmat leaned into bolder statement pieces, such as feathered dresses ($2,000), sculptural tops ($500), and the bulky bamboo Ark bag ($200) that helped land the brand on the map. She also limited the brand’s wholesale exposure in favor of direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales, which has paid off in the wake of multi-brand woes. (Cult Gaia’s channel mix is currently 70% DTC, versus 30% wholesale, including stockists such as Net-a-Porter, Revolve, and Bergdorf Goodman.)
Cult Gaia’s seven own stores are currently concentrated in the US — from New York to LA to Miami — plus its four seasonal outposts. But Hekmat is intent on building out its physical presence globally, and believes that opening stores, rather than relying on online sales and wholesale stockists, is the only way she can control the experience. “I get to do the interiors and the music and the architecture, and really create a feeling that is beyond just objects,” she says. “Our days are so monotonous. So if you can go into a Cult Gaia store and experience some novelty and a dopamine hit, we’re doing what we’re meant to do.”
Now, the founder is doubling down on her approach, with plans to more than double the brand’s existing stores in the next two to three years, build out its recently launched men’s category, and invest in future shows off the back of its Fall/Winter 2026 New York runway debut.
The build out
Ten to 15 stores by 2029 may be a big push for a brand that opened its first physical space just three years ago, in LA in 2023, but many have been in the works for some time now. It takes a while to get the details right, Hekmat says. “The most important part is signing a good deal that will protect the business in the long term,” she says, meaning a deal that offers the brand a high-visibility location, neighbors that align with its positioning, and, of course, a fair price. “The biggest risk is also the biggest reward, which is obviously that we can attract new customers and bring them into our space, but it can become heavy on the P&L [profit and loss] if you’re not signing good deals.”
