Hermès returned to parade in presence during Paris Fashion Week with its Men’s Spring-Summer 2022 collection in Auguste Perret’s 1930s building. Designed by Véronique Nichanian, creative director of the Parisian fashion house, the collection communicates a sense of lightness, relaxation and freedom. A minimal but impactful set design was created by the designer and a theatre director, Cyril Teste.
I have always been convinced that it takes time to create clothes that last beyond the seasons. My work has always been focused on shape, colour and materials. At Hermès, we use a phrase borrowed from the world of horsemanship, which is very appropriate for this period: ‘Everything straight, with calm and readiness’.
The collection is a response to our need for a broader perspective, an invention and reinvention of a wardrobe in which different fabrics are interwoven, and where technical innovation finds inspiration in the heritage of craftsmanship.
Depth and fantasy: a duality of spirit that shakes up appearances. Paper becomes fabric, leather comes alive with explosions of colours and graphic stitching. Trompe-l’œil shapes: overshirts, double cardigan-jackets, coats and parkas in two materials. A bright, soft jumper and large bermuda shorts embody the relaxed style of the collection.
This hybrid approach inaugurates a renewed elegance that it is synonymous of energetic and flexible shapes: the apparently casual style hides a structured sophistication for the night as it fades from the day. Innovation and precision, a dialogue with tradition that is devoured, shaded, perforated and finally transformed with modern techniques.
A harmonious interplay of contrasts accentuates the colours. Celadon green, chocolate and carbon tones blend with the softness of light pink, stone grey and raw silk. ‘I designed a collection on rather neutral colours, hemp, seaweed, chocolate… and on this palette stronger, softer, sometimes kneaded or faded by the sun mixture or sun-faded tones blossom and expand. Suddenly, big flowers appear and the colours explode: a bright yellow, a lettuce green’.
Suffused with optimism and energy, this collection bursts with the vitality of a newfound world.
