Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski’s AW23 Hermès collection began with the designer herself. She’s recently chopped her fiery mane of hair into a bob, and sartorially has been inspired to create clothes that bob and flow “with the suppleness of locks of hair”, read the show notes. There was a refined casualness to the collection’s double-sided cashmere coats, ribbed knit Bermuda shorts and leather trenches that spilt into quilted macs. Like the deep orange carpeted showspace, the collection came fashioned from a slew of warm shades: Falun red, to copper brown and blond beige – the sort of shades you’d find lined-up on a beauty counter. There was a chic practicality to the collection’s leather equestrian jackets, blanket coats and square-toe, over-the-knee boots. Not to mention the Harnessed Birkins, which will undoubtedly leave Hermès loyalists in a flurry.
A closing procession of shimmery plissé frocks took the collection from day to night. Their elegance came rooted in the way they draped effortlessly over the models’ frames. In the Hermès universe, high craft doesn’t sacrifice comfortability. These are clothes made to be lived in.
Photography courtesy of Filippo Fior.