In the very unsettling world climate of today, Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski delivers a steady, confident assurance for the modern woman in the Hermès Fall-Winter 2022 Women’s collection unveiled last week at Paris Fashion Week.
Don’t be fooled, it is not a safety net by any means—but a calm and cool reinvention of the Hermès codes to offer both reprieve and quiet rebellion at the same time, as if to say: I am woman and I have got this under control.
Credit: Hermès/YouTube
The runway show travels back to La Garde Republicaine near Paris’ Bastille where the setting felt soft and subdued amid its neutral walls, back-lit wall passages and smoothed-out green sand walkway—only to be awoken by the strong haunting beats of hypnotic music that serves as the perfect soundtrack for the plethora of models strutting swiftly in their carefully orchestrated looks.
The earthy colors and steadfast silhouettes of the enigmatic collection come one after the other in a beautiful trance-like walk, and the vision that Vanhee-Cybulski puts forth is: Equestrian Techno. She has taken the maison’s saddlery roots and ancestral techniques a step further from tradition, giving it sophistication, modernity and unmistakeable sensuality.
We see body-fitting long unitards and jodphurs in engineered knit and supple leather, short shorts and flirty skirts alternately in plush knits or meticulously pieced leather stripes to harmonize perfectly with the sheer lace tops that are occasionally peppered with patterns, textures and of course, the emblematic Hermès hardware.
The Hermès woman is taking charge of her self-expression, casually yet elegantly showing skin through the sheers and short lengths, while juxtaposing it with above-the-knee block-heeled suede boots and knit tights, then finishing it off with carefully structured and embellished cashmere, leather or wool outerwear that asserts the maison’s luxury craft and timeless identity. Among the earthy neutrals and trusty blacks and whites, we see hints of faience blue and trademark Hermès graphics to punctuate this season’s statement.
The Hermès FW2022 collection is quietly begging the question: “Where will we be heading tomorrow?” And the response seems clear: she is moving undeniably forward with the certainty and confidence of being defined by her own sensibility. The collection makes sure to provide the modern woman enough sexiness and edginess to set herself apart from what’s been seen and done before, but at the same time offers her a vault of pieces versatile and reliable enough to plow through every day’s demands.
Freedom and femininity, self-defined sensuality, careful and sophisticated confidence with a touch of rebellion: this is the woman Hermès is setting out into this unpredictable world.
