Hermès FW 2024 The second chapter: The return of pre-collection shows to the Hermès universe

At the very end of pre-fall and cruise shows season,  Hermès staged a big show in New York, calling it Hermes fall 2024, the second chapter — and thus created some sort of surprise, because the practice of pre-collection shows is not very typical for this Parisian house. Actually, such an attempt has already been made and one collection was even shown, but then the artistic director of the Hermès women's collections Nadège Vanhee got pregnant and the house galantly moved the next shows to the future. Then the covid pandemic began and the idea seemed to be abandoned. It wasn’t so and today we are seeing a second attempt.

Clearly, the choice of location for the show is primarily driven by the  American market’s extreme importance for  Hermès, a statement that’s true both historically and right this moment. But there is also a separate plot that adds some private conceptual importance to this quite pragmatic choice. It has been 10 years since Nadège Vanhee became the artistic director of  Hermès women’s wear and moved to Paris from New York, where she was the design director of women’s collections for The Row. And now she returns to NYC in a completely different capacity — and she has what to show this city.

It is traditionally believed that pre-collections are the most commercial of them all and from this point of view the second part really did look more commercial than the first. At the same time, it really was the second chapter and it bore an aesthetic connection to the first. A narrow, tightly fitted silhouette, the tight leather trousers, slightly flared at the bottom as its base, the leather trenches, and even a flash of lavish leather jackets from the first chapter, cinched at the waist and resembling a historical ladies riding habit, — and if you have ever been lucky enough to visit the museum of Émile Hermès at Fabourg St. Honoure, 24, then you will remember une tenue d'équitation that belonged to his wife Julie Hermèкs.

That said, the second part differed from the first — above all, in the image of its heroine. While in the first chapter we saw a strong, even a stern woman, in the second she became not softer, but somehow a little more detached, and, at the same time, acquired some special seductiveness, a very New York-style cinematic vibe. And it's not just the tightly fitted leather, but also the high-necked black sheath dresses, worn under the black leather harness, and black leather caps, pushed over the eyes, and, of course, leather trench coats. These women wouldn’t look out of place in the black-and-white photos of Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh, the main troubadours of New York in the late 80s and 90s, the decade to which this collection appeals. And in this black dress with a leather harness over the breasts, and in the mini shorts with a short fur bomber and a classic Hermès quilted coat tied around the hips, and in the leather trench coats — there surprisedly turned out to be a lot of New York in the current Hermès style, which seems to be a very organic fit to the city’s landscape.

At the same time, the looks in this collection were put together in a more practical way — both in terms of styling and in terms of the clothes themselves. The second part had no stylistic sharpness that was present in the first — everything seemed to be similar, but somehow more direct and practical. And this practicality can be seen as a tribute to the traditions of American fashion and American market, or it can be seen as Nadège Vanhee’s special homage to the city that engendered her 10-year tenure at Hermès. And we can view this American flair, which manifested itself in the sophisticated French style as her personal greeting to New York — through years and space.

Courtesy: Hermès

Text: Elena Stafyeva