The fall Hermès collection was dedicated to horses and motorbikes, “two riding sports,” Nadège Vanhee said. She herself prefers a bicycle because “it’s safe,” but she had a good time exploring the parallel motifs. You could say she let loose, if the leather clothes weren’t so body-conscious.
The set was a change of scene from last season’s grassy meadow. Today’s runway was black and slick, the way nighttime streets look wet in the movies, with metal grates running the length of it. Then it actually did start raining. Leave it to Hermès to make its own weather.
Vanhee’s Bikeuse Équestre builds her outfits from the ground up: Pointy-toe cowboy boots are paired with cropped and flared stretch leather pants, and flat knee-high moto boots with side zips are partnered with skirts and dresses. Both styles had editors talking excitedly afterward; they’ll probably be as expensive as a motorcycle, or at least a fancy bike, but they’re classic (and well made) enough to be worth the investment.
Hermès’s power customers may not have to bother with those sorts of calculations, but Vanhee seems to keep them in her head when she’s designing. There was investment leather outerwear from start to finish: cabans with shaved-shearling shawl collars, fitted equestrian jackets and others that were rounder through the shoulders and sleeves, and, most exceptionally, a jacket embroidered with glossy ostrich feathers.
The sexy bits were the ribbed leather leggings and leather pencil skirts with slits up the side or middle front, one with small silver studs trimming the edges. It’s exciting to see Vanhee exploring such frankly sexual territory when she has so often operated in a more decorous space. But in the end, the soft printed and gently studded silk dresses with smocked waists will be easier to ride a horse or a motorcycle in.
