Art de Vivre Award 2024

Laure Hériard Dubreuil opened The Webster in South Beach, Miami, in June 2009 after relocating from Paris with a vision for a store that offered warmth, comfort, and the best of international fashion. Hériard Dubreuil grew up in Paris and Cognac, France. After earning degrees in business and Mandarin from the University de Paris Dauphine, Hériard Dubreuil moved to New York City to study merchandising at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She worked on Nicolas Ghesquiere’s merchandising team at Balenciaga and went on to be Stefano Pilati’s head merchandiser at Yves Saint Laurent.

Hériard Dubreuil’s history with the top French luxury houses initially helped her secure access to the most sought-after brands, such as Balenciaga, Balmain, and Celine, for The Webster. Yet it was the store’s happy, vibrant atmosphere and Hériard Dubreuil’s rule-breaking attitude toward merchandising, organizing collections not by designer but as one gigantic dream closet, that continued to lure elite brands and clients. Aläia, Chanel, Gucci, Loewe and The Row are just a few of the houses that have done exclusive creative partnerships and capsule collections with The Webster. The store now carries more than 150 fashion and accessories labels, including Hériard Dubreuil’s own line LHD, a home collection done in collaboration with Parisian interior designer Stephane Parmentier and most recently, the addition of a beauty vertical. The Webster has ten boutiques with locations in South Beach, Houston, Bal Harbour, Costa Mesa, New York City’s SoHo, Los Angeles, Montecito, Toronto, Palm Springs most recently a store in New Jersey.

In 2015, Hériard Dubreuil became an ambassador for Mothers 2 Mothers, a global nonprofit dedicated to eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa through education, medical support, and financial empowerment for HIV-positive women and children.