Hermès shows are always an oasis of calm during the maelstrom of Paris Fashion Week, the sartorial equivalent of ASMR. This, after all, is a house that has been doing Quiet Luxury for almost two centuries, its products so self-assured in quality and timeless design that it needn’t create a spectacle in order to spell it out to the world. Instead, the show space at Garde Républicaine was transformed with mounds of real reeds, grasses and wildflowers (all will be replanted in various projects after the show, the house noted) that suggested that whereas other houses need to create complicated set-ups and contrived narratives to convince customers of their worth, the concept of luxury at Hermès luxury is simply au naturel.
The house’s womenswear creative director, Nadège Vanhée’s, SS24 collection was equally direct, inspired by the early bloom of spring: ‘an impromptu picnic, unhurried chatter, birdsong, a lack of constraints,’ as the show notes put it (by happy accident, a white butterfly emerged from the reeds and fluttered across the catwalk as the show began). The dozen or so opening looks came in a rich oxblood palette, taken from the natural patina of leather, and applied to easy-breezy summer staples like leather-striped cotton skirts, cashmere and silk coats draped over athletic-looking bodysuits, apron-like tailoring with caped boleros for ventilated structure, washed-silk trousers gathered at the waist, cargo-pocketed overshirts over roomy cotton shorts, sculpted leather bralettes resembling ribbed jersey, and silky knits tracing the line of the body, exposing flashes of skin to match the deliciously buttery tones of Hermès hides.
‘Light, free, open, solid,’ the show notes elucidated. ‘[Clothes] made to protect but not to hide, to envelop but not to hinder… they follow your sensibilities, your inclinations, your desires.’ Simplicity was paramount to each look, styled with a notable lack of bags and Greecian-style sandals in ribbon and woven calfskin, with Medor-studded soles that left a unique footprint behind. The result was a feeling of lightness, even if plenty of the clothes were the result of laborious craftsmanship and intricate details — the broderie anglaise-style summery cotton dresses in the final section of the show were details turned out to be leather, stamped out in the same pattern as Hermès brogues. This was a lesson in how to wear a house’s heritage lightly, literally and figuratively, at a time when so many others are burdened with the crippling weight of it.
