Paris Fashion Week S/S 2012: Womenswear

Hermès

For his sophomore effort for Hermès, designer Christophe Lemaire tackled practical travel pieces. The essentials for a walking-heavy voyage in a hot climate were all accounted for: there were the flat walking sandals with built-in socks; headbands and kerchiefs to keep the hair in place; an all-white repertoire of sun-deflecting culottes and cropped harem pants; and a trunk's worth of silhouettes that stood away from the body. When not in white-out mode, Lemaire used an attractive desert palette of burnt orange, olive and aubergine. Though the pleated tunics, hooded cloaks and silk shorts might be welcome on a scorching day, Lemaire's more relevant fashion work had a more graphic quality, including a diamond-pattern woven skirt, a scarf-print dress and a colour-blocked two-piece skirt and top