While other designers splashed water or staged giant board games at Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2026, Hermes took the easy-on-the-eye route, urbane, and serene as a catwalk saga. The house’s menswear collection, led by Véronique Nichanian, redefined what leather could look and feel like.
Hermes presented woven leather trousers that felt like linen, bandanas that only looked like silk (surprise — also leather), and neat tailoring. One reviewer put it, this was fashion “in a language of strength, deep craft and luxury.”
That confidence is what made Hermes stand out. It chose restraint. The colour palette was muted but precise — coffee, slate, taupe, beige — a kind of tone-on-tone flow. Even their accessories stayed humble: Roomy totes, rope-soled sandals, and just a wink of silver.
The handiwork was unpaired. Menswear writer Derek Guy explains, “Hermes employs a technique called the saddle stitch. The maker first pierces the leather with an awl, then threads two needles through each hole from opposite sides, arms stretching wide like a bird’s wings.”
The leather itself told its own story, being stripped into lattices, shaped into what looked like a mesh t-shirt. Some scarves weren’t scarves (actually leather), and canvas totes with prints of gambling monkeys. Even the sandals, with rope soles and barely-there straps, stuck to the theme: Indulgence, head to toe.
Leather is France’s new power play — a way of holding onto elegance while letting go of effort. And no one’s playing it better than Hermes.
It’s a hot take, sure. But not far off. Writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb says, “The 3 largest French corps, LVMH, L’Oréal & Hermes are into Lindy Medieval products. France went from an engineering powerhouse to making handbags. Technology is too competitive, with low margins; leave it to the Chinese & sell them luxury purses, champagne & perfume.”
But is leather softening? The runways say yes, and the red carpet agrees. Of late, Cate Blanchett was spotted in a leather jacket, Halle Bailey turned heads in an all-black leather ensemble, Selena Gomez wore leather to the UNICEF Ball, while Millie Bobby Brown’s throwback Calvin Klein look and Amal Clooney’s Margiela tote prove that leather is no longer about edge. Not to mention Hailey Bieber, whose off-duty wardrobe often includes softened, slouchy leather staples.
The seams are flawless. The leather feels like it’s breathing with you. Even as Pharrell’s LV collection brought out cricket-striped ties and mink hoodies, and Rick Owens drenched his models in fountains, Hermes remained still: Focused and ‘cool.’ And that’s perhaps the boldest move of all.
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