“Nothing moves me more than a so-called ‘mistake’ or ‘faux pas’,”Hermès designer Véronique Nichanian told i-D earlier this year. “A friend of mine once put his leather jacket through the washing machine and it looked fantastic,” she offered as evidence, explaining that, “Clothes should express your inner self: wrong or right doesn’t exist. I was once told white socks were a no-no, so I put them on every single model that season”.
Trends don’t bother Nichanian, and she rejects the concept of ‘throw-away fashion’. The designer has spent 25 years at Hermès, creating and refining the house’s vision of elegant, luxurious and often surprising menswear – last season, Nichanian made the case for velvet track pants and crocodile skin sweaters, for example.
Catch the latest iteration of the Hermès man, as we live stream the spring/summer 16 menswear show from Paris, at 7pm London time on this page.