Locked down in le confinement, Véronique Nichanian binged on theater—watched online, of course. This sparked the start of a process that led to today’s livestreamed presentation of her spring 2021 menswear collection from the airy foyer of Les Ateliers Hermès in Pantin, on the edges of Paris. It was, said Nichanian on a call shortly afterwards, a “four-hands” operation overseen by her in partnership with Cyril Teste, an experimental director whose Collective MxM specializes in the poetic expression of live dramatic performance via streamed video.
Presented as if shot in one take—with the exception of a cut around a loving close-up of a Slim d’Hermès watch in stainless steel and Barénia calfskin—Teste’s direction here was reminiscent of that of Sam Mendes in 1917. The result was restrained in that it communicated an evocative soupçon of this collection, rather than attempting an exhaustive à la carte. It was also dynamic in its presentation, whooshing us down in an elevator with a model wearing a double-fronted tailored jacket and sash-collared shirt, and then around the light-filled atrium.
Rather than reproducing a show, this qualified more as a show-experience with footage of Nichanian and her team working backstage. There were some especially nice details of her discussing with Teste that she wanted to emphasize the leather detailing in the indentations of a rib-knit sweater as well as the belt worn below it. A close-up on the shoulders of a model wearing a striped shirt revealed a subtly opaque pattern hidden within. Other scenes revealed glimpses of layered shirting in panels of contrasting striping used in jackets, and zippered waistcoats. We zoomed across to a model called Jai wearing a minimally cut yet generously silhouetted putty suit who was told he had “two minutes” and promptly left the building to take a call, before panning to a less urgent mise-en-scène in which another model listened to Primal Scream on his headphones and we got to note his seersucker-looking jacket, also putty, tucked into his slightly darker, lovely, drawstring pants.
Before this presentation went live, Hermès delivered a care package of nibbles to my apartment. I had fully intended to watch this collection video while grazing at the kindly provided black truffle chips, olive tapenade, and lemon verbena tea, but, of course, one of the big problems with a digitally presented show is that the house cannot control the context in which the end product is seen. Crushingly, my children pinched all the food. Even worse, as I watched Nichanian’s presentation on my laptop, one of them was howling with rage across the room following a premature death on Fortnite.
What was much better than a real show about this one, however, was having the chance to get to speak properly with Nichanian—this is rarely doable at the défilé, as she is besieged by Hermès worshippers. As this unconventional show cannot be conventionally reviewed, here is some of what she had to say:
“I had never met Cyril before, but I knew his work and I jumped at the chance to do this project together in four-hands. At the beginning we met on the phone, and talked a lot, and it was like working with an old friend. He knew my clothes but he did not know the job, and this world. I explained to him what a press show is, and what is going on before in the backstage. And we decided together to work on not what is the backstage, but what is called in French ‘hors-champ,’ or ‘off-camera.’ As I told him, it was an opportunity to present exactly what I wanted people to see because when you are on the runway you might be looking at the clothes, or the shoes, or the model—I don’t know. But as a designer I know exactly what I want the audience to see…and it was very funny to do that together [with Cyril].... We all had a lot of joy working together, his team and my team.
I held a show at Pantin in the atelier once before, a long time ago, and it was my idea to come back here again where the craftsmen are, in this beautiful space with beautiful light.… Freshness, lightness, and joy were something I really concentrated on throughout lockdown and in the making of the collection. And it was strange, doing it at home on the computer.… I did the same double-lapel jacket we saw last winter, in flannel, and I played with different stripes and different blues, and there was a chaîne d’ancre printed over the shirt striping—I’m glad you saw that detail because I was not sure if the camera would show it! The print you see towards the end was from La Danse des Chevaux, a new scarf, and the third print, which was not in the show, is playing with tiny robos, robots. There is a blue leather jacket, in suede, that also has the chaîne d’ancre, although you could not see it in the movie, and the man you see walking behind the mirrors is wearing a noncolor blouson in deerskin, very beautiful, in beige. But I put just two pieces of leather in the collection...although in that knitwear you talked about, yes, we worked on putting the leather between the ribs of the knit.… Thank you, I’m glad you liked the sandals! We did this sandal that is closed, a gardener’s sandal.
The collection is bigger than what was presented to you in the film. We saw 18 looks there, but we are photographing 26, which is what we will share with you. And that is less than usual. And sometimes it was quite difficult working with the team, all on the computers, but at the end we did a good job. Because we made these pieces, real pieces.
Am I looking forward to the return of the défilé? In a way, but I like this way of working too. I like the idea of seeing the reality but also sharing the details on the computer too, and maybe we can play on that.… Everybody is trying to find the right way now, and it is open, and we can investigate.… Yes, it’s an opportunity.”
Nichanian, who has been in her position since 1988, demonstrated both the movement in her clothes and the flexibility in her attitude with this presentation for Hermès today.
Hermès 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, video and remote interviews.
