The models in the Hermès show tonight walked against huge windows with Paris lit up outside. That was the effect Véronique Nichanian wanted: man in the city. Her collection was more urban than it's been of late, blending the return of tradition in pinstripes and glen plaid with a sporty activewear component. Hello, world: Jacket and track pants are the It combination for Fall 2015. This being Hermès, however, the track pants came in a lustrous sheared mink.
The very idea sounds ludicrous, but the incontrovertible truth is that Nichanian has built her career on alchemizing the most extreme notions of what might constitute "luxury"—in the eyes of a world that can scarcely afford it—with the most accessible shapes and forms. Is a sweatshirt still a sweatshirt if it comes in crocodile, even if the sleeves are pushed up, all casual like? It's a question very few designers are ever in a position to ask. To Nichanian's credit, she's managed to ask and answer such conundrums over and over again. Of course, it's a sweatshirt, and you want it…now.
But there was something different about this show—something darker, in keeping with the generally pessimistic tone of the season. The mood was cued by the rattled James Murphy remix of David Bowie's "Love Is Lost," which cast a particular light on the somber sobriety of the suits that opened the show. Suits are security in hard times. There were even ties, a conservative trope that Nichanian has been conspicuously avoiding for a while. And when something casual—a blouson—finally appeared, it was equally conspicuously pinstriped, as was the zippered cardigan that followed on its heels.
It scarcely needs repeating that Nichanian's design process is evolution, not revolution. She herself describes it as "le meme propos." Still, if you picture each new collection as a chapter in her autobiography, she is writing a book that gets more interesting with each new installment.
