At Hermès, an escape into a future of travel
Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski takes us to the airport for an optimistic collection.
This is “airport fashion” but not as we knew it.
When we can enjoy unrestricted travel once again, it doesn't have to be in sweats.
Artistic director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski seduces us with the hope of new perspectives and escape in her latest collection for Hermès.
“More than building a wardrobe, it’s about recovering sensations,” she said to Women’s Wear Daily. “I think that these days, people need to be reassured, but personally, I also want to feel encouraged to continue living, and therefore I think it’s important that this is a feel-good event.”
Informed by our relaxed home wardrobes, just like the loosening up of travel restrictions, so do her clothes. Ease doesn’t have to be synonymous with casual, epitomized by her bias-cut shifts. A gathered waistband with a drawstring, just like the brand’s pouches, is in full skirts and wide-legged trousers. There is an undercurrent of feminist sensuality in the precise way the skin is revealed, in the way the silhouettes contour the body without binding them.
“I looked at a lot of dresses from the 1920s, because it was interesting to be able to understand this liberation of the body from corsets, and the movement,” Vanhee-Cybulski continues.
Structured triangle crop tops and halter crop tops are cut to reveal the shoulders with an athletic swagger, worn with plissé trousers or baggy pants with cargo pockets; a nod to the Nineties and an on-trend pairing some of us might be seeing the second time around, and for good reason — they remind me of my youth, a time when the possibilities were endless.
The house’s craftsmanship and heritage shines in the unexpected fabrications and details that are very Hermès. Buttery calfskin is a revelation as a bustier dress, while a matching coat, crop top, and micro skirt are in silk gauze, layered with tessellated appliques of paper-thin yellow lambskin. The same studs from the brand’s coveted handbags are attached on leather trimmings, catching light like pearls as they trim belted jackets. These studs also line the flowiest silk gauze on a square-necked shift. Horse-tacks are used as eyelets and abbreviated into a necklace and a cuff with circular leather links. Scarf prints are blurred on silk separates.
T-strapped leather sandals in platform soles are paired with everything, some worn with matching lambskin socks. New cylindrical top-handle bags with horse-bit handles debuted in this collection, paired with a cuff abbreviated from the same horse-bit.
In the past year, airlines have sold out “flights to nowhere” experiences for that promise of escape. Watching the Hermès terminal with hand-painted solar landscapes by artist Flora Moscovici packed with people, I am optimistic. We will all soon be able to fly into the sun.
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Hermès is in Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati.
