Fashion’s invention soars when conjuring up synonyms to describe its colors. Hermès fittingly offers some of the most luxuriant: silex and baobab and Tyrian purple. Which, roughly speaking, means a flinty yellow-brown, a woody bark-brown, and the purple of Roman emperor’s robes. Hermès said it better.
If not obsessed, then Véronique Nichanian is certainly highly interested in the power of color. Her grandiose official title is artistic director of the Hermès Men’s Universe, but in actual fact her sphere of work is compact—the demands are very much similar season in and out, and color permits Nichanian to experiment in a manner materials could not permit. Hermès, after all, is a leather house, with a focus on influencing the wardrobe decisions of only the wealthiest. There’s an inherent conservatism to that economic strata of society, particularly when it comes to their clothes. They may hang an abstract painting on their wall, but they don’t want to wear one.
That said, there’s something supremely satisfying about what Nichanian achieves at Hermès, which is never to reinvent the wheel but, rather, reupholster the carriage. Color is a primary tool, because while men may sniff at a strange fabric or an architectonic cut, you can possibly entice them into wearing a citrus yellow goatskin T-shirt, or at least injecting the color into a fine-gauge knit of accessory. That limoncello, so sharp it was almost chartreuse, was the kicky punctuation for this latest statement in the well-rounded vocabulary of Nichanian’s Hermès, of easy bomber jackets and narrow trousers, papery overcoats and a set of overalls that will surely find a willing buyer. Perhaps so will the tie-dyed suede cardigans and silk knits, although they’re a trickier, happier sell.
It’s difficult to judge these clothes via photographs, or even in the flesh. Words certainly aren’t enough. These are garments that necessitate flesh and blood, getting touchy and feely, maybe even wrangling yourself into them to understand their distinct appeal. As a flat image, they can read flat, but they’re really anything but.
Fashion is increasingly mediated by digital imagery—the argument being that the industry is in the doldrums due to said snaps removing a lust to acquire and replacing it with ennui. These kind of clothes can be seen as an antidote to that school of thought; garments you have to lay your hands on not only to fully understand, or be excited by, but to really fall in love.
