What a hot, hot collection for a steamy, sultry day in Paris. Under Véronique Nichanian, Hermès menswear is always a paragon of good taste, and today was no exception. Though never ostentatiously conceptual, this is a decidedly cerebral and undeniably lofty maison. Yet this afternoon, Nichanian fashioned a menswear collection that was undeniably sensual—sexy, even. One got the impression it was designed to stir the imagination in directions perhaps not automatically associated with this zenith of savoir faire.
Built for extreme heat (unlike so many of this season’s bulky, outerwear-heavy “summer” lineups), the collection used breezy volumes and light fabrications to enable the wearer’s skin to breathe and—it must be said—the onlooker to breathe in the view. Sheer cotton with a lattice-like mesh in shirting, and chalky-finish sheer fabrics in jackets invited the eye to wonder as it wandered. Additional to these were shorts—in cotton, linen, and lambskin—which my Vogue Business colleague Laure Guilbault astutely observed to Nichanian afterwards “are very short.”
“Very short shorts, yes!” the designer concurred. “The garçons have beautiful legs!” Nichanian added that, in a season where young women often wear short skirts and a social moment where former gender norms have become increasingly fluid, it seemed only equitable to afford the same high-hemmed opportunity to men. Guilbault signaled her agreement. Hermès was legs for days.
It was not all about short shorts and sheer shirts—this is Hermès, after all. Invariably secured with double-strap stirrup belts, not unlike their watch straps, pants were cut close to the hip before broadening via pleats to drop expansively straight to mid-ankle. This lent enough room to consider the lovely sandals, quite high-soled, with serge strapping in black, cream, and brown. Later a similar upper but in calfskin was teamed with a molded sole etched with nubbly rubber studs for purchase.
The one category that is never not sexy here delivered once again. Most especially ooh la la were the Haut à Courroies bags in brown and marine-touched gray that had the apparently sun-faded shadow of a name tag and padlock stenciled on one side. In the burgundy colorway, it was borderline orgasmic. There were tote bags in soft rope and leather, latticed like the shirts, plus a boxy little black hip bag. Nichanian fulfilled her employer’s theme of the year with this collection, while also honoring the house’s rich equestrian heritage: Hermès was hot to trot.
