October 3, 2025 |
“I do not ride horses,” says Nadège Vanhée, 47, artistic director of womenswear at Hermès, “but I like the culture of horses.” Not only has she studied how the millennia-old relationship between horses and humans has shaped civilisation, she’s also fascinated by the engineering of the saddle (it helps that Hermès makes some of the best in the world).
If you’re wondering why slipping into an Hermès coat, jacket or pair of leather trousers feels so good, so right, on the body, the designer puts it down to her fascination with saddlery.
“The whole technique and the knowledge around the saddle is quite impressive. How it has this ergonomie between the horse’s anatomy and the rider’s anatomy. It gave me a different approach to designing a coat or a jacket or trousers,” she says. “You think of movement, but it’s also about stability – that is important. Do you know what I mean by stability? It’s the comfort almost, the comfort of your body and the stability the clothes have. The fabric stays, it doesn’t slip off. You can sit and easily stand up.”
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For AW25, Vanhée delved into Hermès’s horsey heritage, setting up her Paris catwalk like an equestrian ring to showcase a collection that has functionality at its heart and luxury in its soul. Felted horse blankets were the starting point for enveloping leather-lined coats that unzipped into blankets as well as reversible gaberdine overcoats trimmed with leather – some of the many multi-way ideas Vanhée put into the collection. Modularity and transformability, crafted the Hermès way, are deeply ingrained in her design philosophy.
Engaged and playful, her clothes are the opposite of passive. They reflect her energy and sense of purpose and appeal to women making their way in the world. Vanhée’s women like to make the clothes their own. “It comes from how we live today, right? We have different needs. It’s about being functional and adaptable. You have to adapt to a certain moment of your day or in your life. I even came up with this mantra: ‘modularity is actually timeless’,” says the designer who creates with movement in mind, because to her, luxury “is not about control, it’s more about freedom”.
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“It’s inherent in my approach,” she adds. “I like to engage. I don’t want to force it. I like to invite people to express themselves. It’s important. Maybe because when I was a little girl I didn’t listen to my parents. I don’t like to be told what to do, so I like to invite people to express themselves.” She might not like to have rules imposed upon her, but she’s guided by her own code. “Being open-minded,” she says, is key. Her number one edict? “Respect yourself. I think it’s important, the notion of respect.”
We meet in the elegant Hermès showroom in Mayfair, central London, where we are surrounded by pieces that beautifully express her empowered, can-do aesthetic. Vanhée looks effortlessly chic in an oversized shirt and leather trousers, her full-to-the-brim Plume bag causally left on the sofa (her other bag favourite is the Bolide) as she pulls pieces from her AW25 and second chapter collections (shown in Shanghai in June, it expanded on the Paris show with an urban hiking theme) and enthusiastically shows them off. From the everyday dynamism of leather-lined denim to cosy turtlenecks “that feel like a hug”, quilted leather shorts, cropped leather kick flares, wrap-over and lace-up wrap skirts, leather and wool dresses and oversized bomber jackets in silk, these are clothes that are rooted in real life. “Reality, for me, is important. Of course, I like the storytelling of fashion. I also like the real exercise of, let’s make clothes that we can wear and show,” she says.
The idea of creating pieces that can be worn many ways is important. She started experimenting with modularity a few seasons back, creating knitwear pieces that could be transformed from a dress to a jumper, bandeau or crop top. “I’m not good with mathematics, but you could have maybe five or six different iterations,” she says. It’s since become an important feature. Her recent collection developed the idea further with coats that have detachable liners which function as their own garment or a contrasting layer, as well as ponchos that can be buttoned or draped into different silhouettes. “It’s very playful”, she says, as she unbuttons and adjusts the pieces in the showroom to create new looks.
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Her design process is driven by curiosity and involves lots of experimenting until the finished idea resolves itself. It’s a hands-on process. “We take time to design, to craft,” she says. And everything is beautifully tactile. Leather is one of her favourite materials. “It’s so malleable. You can express [yourself] by using many different creative ideas. It’s a great expression of techniques and craft and you can turn them into [everything from] amazing sportswear or a parka to a very sexy dress,” she says. Whatever the season, silk, leather and wool form the core of every Hermès collection Vanhée creates. “It’s always connected with nature and is about respecting the beautiful, inherent quality of a natural fibre. But you just push. Thanks to the craftsmanship, you elevate it to a very beautiful state,” she says.
But the beauty Vanhée achieves is not of the untouchable variety that we usually equate with French houses. “There’s definitely a sense of curiosity and striving for being creative and genuine,” she says of the culture at Hermès. “It brings character and intention to the house.” It also allows Hermès to occupy a unique place in the luxury pantheon. Rather than pitch itself at life lived on a pedestal, it offers a far more energised proposition. “It’s luxury and timeless because it’s resilient and reliable. Do you know what I mean by reliable? So, you buy it, and you know that it can grow with you and somehow be there at any stage of your life,” she says. An Hermès piece is, she says, “a best friend”.
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That built-to-last, friend-for-life reliability comes from the craftsmanship that goes into everything at Hermès. For Vanhée, the relationships she has with the house’s artisans are precious. “When you talk with the craftsmen [about] the knowledge they have, it’s almost like if you had a grandmother with her cooking tricks,” says the designer. But despite the centuries of tradition at their fingertips, there’s also an agility to the Hermès approach. When it comes to ideas, the artisans challenge her and she challenges them. “Sometimes the material is quite stubborn and you need to have ingenuity and a bit of freestyle. Like the white canvas of a painter or the white paper of a writer, it can be transformed with imagination.”
Born in Seclin, northern France, Vanhée trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the same school that produced Martin Margiela, Demna and Haider Ackermann. No stranger to taste-making, she worked at Celine, Maison Martin Margiela and The Row, which she helped to establish as a hush-hush luxury player, before joining Hermès in 2014. She succeeded Christophe Lemaire, Jean Paul Gaultier and Margiela, who all brought their own unique flavour to the historic house. “My flavour? Like my peers, I hope that I’m anchoring the collection in today’s desirability,” she says.
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Even her approach to the archive is forward-facing. This year marks a century since Hermès produced its first garment designed for a woman, a suede caban coat so strikingly modern in its line it could be worn today. Vanhée wanted to explore this idea, “without falling into the cliché of a birthday and a museum approach”. When she engages with it, her eye is always looking for pieces that transcend time. She edits the past for the present. It inspired her Fil Rouge re-edition project, which took 18 archive pieces from 100 years of womenswear but adapted them “to the morphology of today”. For Vanhée, the archive isn’t so much about the past, but about the possibility of the future, asking, “What can I actually find for today?” But whatever she designs, the same questions run through her mind like a mantra. “What are people busy with, what do they want, what do they need and what do they dream of?” Rooted in creativity, backed by tradition, built beautifully for today. That’s the Hermès way.
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 75 – BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE, TRANSFORMATION – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
HERMES: DRESSAGE
Photographer ADAMA JALLOH
Creative Director SOPHIA NEOPHITOU
Fashion Editor GARTH ALLDAY SPENCER
Text CLAUDIA CROFT
Model EMILY STURGESS at Next Management
Hair ABRA KENNEDY at One Represents
Make-up FEY-CARLA ADEDIJI
Photographer’s assistants ORAN EGGERTON, TAMIBE BOURDANNE and JOSHUA ONABOWU
Fashion assistant SAYWA AKAKANDELWA
Casting NICO CARMANDAYE at Concorde Casting
Production ZAC APOSTOLOU and SONYA MAZURYK
Special thanks to ZANA KARLA GREENWOOD, JORDAN PALMER, ANN SMILES and KARL GREENWOOD
Clothing and accessories throughout by HERMES
