Here we were again in the French national repository of furniture—a wonderfully Gallic national institution if ever there was one. Outside was a small but loud band of protestors and a pretty commensurate amount of police. So what where they protesting, and why here at Hermès? As one placard-holder explained to me (slowly) it was organized by a French labor union representing furniture makers and cabinet makers, which was concerned that this institution’s mission to preserve and transmit artisan skills from generation to generation is being eroded by government cuts and policy. And were they against the public venue being used for this particular private event? “No, because normally it would be closed at the weekend.”
The protests later became less fraternal: Hamish Bowles was hit on the head by a hurled egg (he was fine, and the effect on his hair dashing). Yet despite the bad eggs in the crowd, Hermès and those protestors had some common ground, in that both were coming out at 8PM on a near freezing Saturday night to make a point about the value of French artisanship.
There were for sure some differences—“Culture is becoming a consumer good like any other: it should not be reduced to that!” read the protestors’ manifesto. Yet while Hermès is irrefutably in the business of selling consumer goods, the label’s cachet is built on the deep knowledge of its artisans: their savoir faire. This is a form of culture not necessarily diminished because its products can be sold. In fact, not unlike the double-layered left sides of the show’s closing overcoat and preceding two flannel suit jackets, the protest outside and fashion show inside were two complementary parts of a whole.
Véronique Nichanian has for years been expressing the power of savoir faire via men’s clothing and that tradition continued unruffled tonight. Her split jackets apart, other interesting pieces included flannel suits that were wadded within pinstripe-edged panels and came cuffed at the ankle. The designer allowed decorative riffs to unfold as if played freestyle; a curlingly psychedelic pattern first spotted on shirting and knitwear ebbed away before returning in piping-traced outline on the back of a murkily toned leather bomber jacket, and then beneath the glistening finish of a treated parka whose shine played against the matte black wool pants below. This was a collection that used rich fabrics and materials to emanate restraint: one nearly all black look—a wool pant and fine-knit top—featured a small triangular panel of material in the same swirling pattern that attracted attention but by no means beseeched it. There were the famous bags, obviously, here painted in a kind of frame outline or released in a flannel version (a bit similar to Fall 2018). Other achievements were the sheepskin coats (cathedrals of their kind) and knitwear featuring colored leather patches or oversized inverted herringbone chevrons.
Just as those protesters were agitating to promote and protect French culture, so was Hermès. The company is apparently planning to bring one of its Universe expositional shows to New York soon. As an international exemplar of taste, ingenuity, and artisanship, France could not have a more appropriate ambassador.
