Lately, Nadège Vanhée, creative director of Hermès’ womenswear collections, has introduced a ‘Chapter Two’ of her Autumn/Winter assortment in areas away from the home’s native metropolis of Paris – a tackle different manufacturers’ Cruise reveals, and a possibility to flex a artistic muscle exterior of the confines of house. Her earlier ‘Chapter Two’ collections, happening in New York and Shanghai, have certainly felt like Vanhée has discovered a sense of liberation within the far-off – we wrote of the Shanghai present that there was ‘new frisson of eclecticism and play’ to the French designer’s work, and the identical may very well be stated of the New York present the yr prior, the place she drew inspiration from ‘tempo, power and optimism’ of the town the place she as soon as labored (earlier than Hermès she was design director at Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row).
Yesterday night in Los Angeles, Vanhée continued this trajectory along with her newest travelling present – a ‘Chapter Two’ of March’s A/W 2026 womenswear assortment, taking part in out within the metropolis’s Bel Air neighbourhood. She likened the present set, a pale-yellow ‘pavilion’ designed to echo the golden hour sunshine of the town at sundown, to a stage: an apt setting for a locale which has lengthy attracted those that want to be seen. In selecting Los Angeles, she echoed what has grow to be a development for this season’s Cruise reveals: final month, Jonathan Anderson additionally selected the town to stage his Cruise 2027 present for Dior (the cinematic outing happened at LACMA and mined Christian Dior’s time in Hollywood for inspiration), whereas later right now, Zegna will present its S/S 2027 menswear assortment in Malibu.
Hermès takes to Los Angeles for up to date chapter
(Picture credit score: Max Farago)
Although regardless of a distinctly Hollywood line-up (friends included Miley Cyrus, Keke Palmer and Kerry Washington), Vanhée shifted the thought of efficiency away from the silver display and into the dance studio – a fertile reference level for designers who’ve lengthy mined the dancer’s uniform for its feeling of unrestrained motion and ease, in addition to its give attention to the physique. Unfolding on what Vanhée described because the present set’s ‘luminous stage’, references got here in a collection of satin clothes impressed by the development and texture of conventional ballet slippers, whereas velvet robes have been minimize with a languid glamour – a bit Golden Age Hollywood, a bit Martha Graham (Vanhée stated she was fixated with dance as a toddler).
Certainly, the extremely contoured silhouette of the unique A/W 2026 assortment – which drew on the equestrian uniform, from jodphur pants to dressage blazers – was largely eschewed for roomier leather-based outerwear (like a terrific parka with quilted shoulders) and wraparound satin jackets, whereas semi-sheer chiffon skirts and robes had a sense of lightness and romance, some etched with the home’s Soleil de Soie Tattoo print. ‘Precision offers method to fluidity in a quiet interaction of pressure and launch,’ stated Vanhée by way of the gathering notes.
(Picture credit score: Max Farago)
Because the solar set, a closing collection of seems minimize from glimmering black velvet or satin, ‘recalling the infinite expanse of a star-strewn sky’ did present a throughline between the A/W 2026 assortment’s first and second chapter. Again in March, Vanhée stated she wished to seize the ‘liminal realm’ of twilight, with the present happening amid a present set of moss and soil, the dimly lit house lit by glowing purple orbs. The sky, stated Vanhée, continued to encourage the gathering, although right here the perpetual twilight of the A/W 2026 assortment was changed by the romantic potential of dawn or sundown – a symbolic act of throwing open the home windows and letting the sunshine in. ‘It’s this concept of getting an open horizon; the guarantees of the past,’ she stated.
Her adeptness at these travelling collections stands Vanhée in good stead for her newest problem: the home’s very first couture providing, proven in Paris this July as a part of the town’s high fashion week. Already working within the realm of the superlative, the present will provide even additional alternatives for Vanhée to reveal the artisanal would possibly of Hermès, a home which continues to thrive regardless of the luxurious slowdown elsewhere (within the first quarter of 2026, income was up 6 per cent at fixed change charges in contrast with 2025). ‘The thought is to have the last word gesture of handmaking,’ she not too long ago informed W Journal. ‘Each bit goes to be one among a form and belong to 1 individual.’
(Picture credit score: Max Farago)
