HERMES | FALL / WINTER 2011

The highly anticipated 2011 Fall / Winter Women’s Clothing debut for luxury brand Hermes rose to the occasion with newly appointed artistic director, Christophe Lemaire’s collection evoking a nomadic aspect to his globe trotting Hermes women.

The four themes; monastic gowns, billiard inspired colours, tailored style and Native American hoods and ponchos were showcased in an atmosphere of mysterious eastern elegance. Models glided own the runway at a ‘meditative’ pace to classical Chinese guzheng Zither music.

The opening of the show started with a series of ivory and pure whites in clean lines, followed by earth tones slowly venturing into yellow, turmeric and rich dark green hues with a final transition into the iconic Hermes bright orange.

Long ankle-length, loose sleeve coats dominated the show alongside straight lines and rigid reduced waists with tassel belts. As the top half of the body was quite busy, legs were left clean in leather pant boots, an ‘absolute feat to get right’ according Lemaire.

The stand out point of the show was when a model glided down the runway wearing a white leather riding cap, fine fur pillow collar coat, with a white eagle perched on her gloved hand.

When asked about the aim of his collection, Lemaire said ‘I wanted to do something that would be timeless, because there was a story there, a connection with time and I wanted to talk about slowing things down about timelessness about a moment frozen in time when we could be miles away.’

References towards Asia, Persia and North Africa were evident through the use of graphic prints, bone, horn and leather-based buckles.

The Hermes Fall / Winter 2011 women’s collection spelled a far cry from previous art director, Jean Paul Gaultier’s designs for the luxury brand and a venture into the unknown for Lacoste’s previous art director, Christopher Lemaire.

- Natalie Lukaitis