HERMÈS SPRING SUMMER 2017 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK

It’s a collection in continuous evolution, constantly transformed by notions which arrive to challenge the primary idea; like a road trip where colours, shapes mutate in different landscapes. An astonishing pink, fuschia or “porcelain”, chosen specifically for its dialogue with a kraft brown sweater in knitted cotton viscose.

 It’s a summer season which lets itself be guided by a principle of uninhibited classicism where the silhouette is more marked, and the waist underlined and smocked.

 The practical utility of uniforms celebrates the nobility of the craft which is the history of this house, taken as another starting point: pragmatic habits – of life.  

Giving meaning to the garment. The surface is considered as quilted prints, a tribute to the saddler world of Hermès. Then it all changes, becomes more fluid. These clothes should become our dear friends. 

There are links. Mercerized cotton pieces that so closely unite leather panels in shiny calfskin one by one – to form a jalousiewhich then opens a conversation with the ready-to-wear, this double face knitted silk, this silk cigaline. Everything is symbolic. Here the uniform has left a few traces – the robustness of materials such as compact cotton satin, the obvious simplicity of denim cotton drill milled for a jacket or a straight edge coat.  

There are the beginnings, a tangled maze of kinetic patterns which deliberately twist the Cavalcadour print originally created by Henri d’Origny for Hermès. The illustrator Nigel Peake, has chosen his own diversions, raising his pencil to hatch this original pattern on a phantom pleated knit skirt or a long coat in taffeta stripes painted with a camouflage which is just the opposite. But there is also a strong control resting on these pillars, these high-waisted men’s pants encrusted with silk moiré ribbons with metal hardware.

 There is vulnerability. The tenderness of bias cuts for apron dresses which escape into a myriad of triangular panels or which tame a long black and pond green dress in cloquée silk jacquard. Here delicate hands have worked on cut yarn shirts, dresses embroidered with fur stitches, accidents of softness.