Hervé Léger could not host a presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.
This season’s Hervé Léger look book has a clean, minimalist effect, as if it was plucked out of a ’90s editorial from the brand’s iconic heyday. Since creative director Christian Juul Nielsen took the helm of the label almost two years ago, he has been pushing a less-is-more philosophy. (His designs have landed him some high-profile It girl attention too: Emily Ratajkowski wore a black skimpy Hervé number in December.)
This season’s clothes are likewise pared back. There are the usual suspects, among them a nude body-hugging scoop-neck dress and an optic white tight-fitting sweatshirt dress with loose sleeves. Though one of the best things about Nielsen’s work is seeing how he adds in little remixes to even the most basic staples. On one garment, the “Icon dress” as he termed it, he created little cut-outs up and down the arms to mimic the openings of armor. It’s the touch the piece needed to have some subtle oomph.
Nielsen has also been slowly introducing knitwear. “I want to show that it is a real knitwear house,” he said over a Zoom call. Even from afar, it was easy to see how just well-made a red knit mock-neck sweater was. The piece had tiny square cut-outs to give the effect that the knit bandage piping had been bonded together. At the end of the call, he said that he wished he had the matching skirt—not pictured in the look book—to show via Zoom. We’ll have to wait to see that number IRL.
