HERMÈS FALL WINTER 2018 WOMEN’S COLLECTION – PARIS FASHION WEEK

And this is the beauty of enchanting gardens they do not intrude. They inspire a new dream. Their tree bark is a material that seems familiar, but when you touch it… it surprises you. Never quite being what we are expected to be. Being in this garden with the intimate knowledge of all its paths and deviating from them.

Fifty-four women enter a winter garden at twilight. Walk in this light where you cannot distinguish whether you are inside or outside. Floating in between, a gang of girls in blue-black. Each of them brings something personal to the group, an intimate self-assurance that owes nothing to anyone.

The light has faded, the time has come to capture the signs, signs of such density. The details of the pièces turn them into instant enigmas. Is that a bag there? No, it’s a shawl. The button on this Canadian coat? A clou Médor, of course. Look for long enough and you will find it everywhere. A leitmotif of Hermès leather goods, which finds itself inexplicably in the sharp triangles of Navajo patterns, and inspires lines and geometric shapes in movement.

In this garden of another nature, water-repellent calfskin is akin to leather, jersey embraces fur, light deerskin meets ribbed supple mink. Ribbed velvet-style knits choose a straight line and then change their path; taking a diagonal. Quilting reassures, protects and armours; coats have three pleats forming an almost invisible line on a low-set pocket.

Informal details are added to this natural, whispered sophistication; a climbing cord, or a chain that suddenly serve as fastenings. Thigh high boots seamlessly drenched in colour: andalusite-green, ultra-marine, and orange. Beneath this dream lies a rubber sole. If the sky is the limit, we never abandon the earth. We are there for her. So that, for once, shocking pink is not the enemy of auburn.

Along the footpaths, around the squares, walk fifty-four women. They wear dresses worn close to their skin, waists accentuated; their light leather coats floating in the autumn light. Fifty-four women together enact graceful and gentle movements. No more constraints.

The present is not a problem, it’s a mystery. In the electronic half-light, someone is playing Debussy. I’ll wait for you, for water, ice and fire.