In recent years, Nadège Vanhée, artistic director of Hermès’ womenswear collections, has presented a ‘Chapter Two’ of her Autumn/Winter collection in locations away from the house’s native city of Paris – a take on other brands’ Cruise shows, and an opportunity to flex a creative muscle outside of the confines of home. Her previous ‘Chapter Two’ collections, taking place in New York and Shanghai, have indeed felt like Vanhée has found a feeling of liberation in the far away – we wrote of the Shanghai show that there was ‘new frisson of eclecticism and play’ to the French designer’s work, and the same could be said of the New York show the year prior, where she drew inspiration from ‘pace, energy and optimism’ of the city where she once worked (before Hermès she was design director at Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row).
Yesterday evening in Los Angeles, Vanhée continued this trajectory with her latest travelling show – a ‘Chapter Two’ of March’s A/W 2026 womenswear collection, playing out in the city’s Bel Air neighbourhood. She likened the show set, a pale-yellow ‘pavilion’ designed to echo the golden hour sunshine of the city at sunset, to a stage: an apt setting for a locale which has long attracted those who wish to be seen. In choosing Los Angeles, she echoed what has become a trend for this season’s Cruise shows: last month, Jonathan Anderson also chose the city to stage his Cruise 2027 show for Dior (the cinematic outing took place at LACMA and mined Christian Dior’s time in Hollywood for inspiration), while later today, Zegna will show its S/S 2027 menswear collection in Malibu.
Hermès takes to Los Angeles for latest chapter
Though despite a distinctly Hollywood line-up (guests included Miley Cyrus, Keke Palmer and Kerry Washington), Vanhée shifted the idea of performance away from the silver screen and into the dance studio – a fertile reference point for designers who have long mined the dancer’s uniform for its feeling of unrestrained movement and ease, as well as its focus on the body. Unfolding on what Vanhée described as the show set’s ‘luminous stage’, references came in a series of satin dresses inspired by the construction and texture of traditional ballet slippers, while velvet gowns were cut with a languid glamour – a little Golden Age Hollywood, a little Martha Graham (Vanhée said she was fixated with dance as a child).
Indeed, the highly contoured silhouette of the original A/W 2026 collection – which drew on the equestrian uniform, from jodphur pants to dressage blazers – was largely eschewed for roomier leather outerwear (like a terrific parka with quilted shoulders) and wraparound satin jackets, while semi-sheer chiffon skirts and gowns had a feeling of lightness and romance, some etched with the house’s Soleil de Soie Tattoo print. ‘Precision gives way to fluidity in a quiet interplay of tension and release,’ said Vanhée via the collection notes.
As the sun set, a closing series of looks cut from glimmering black velvet or satin, ‘recalling the infinite expanse of a star-strewn sky’ did provide a throughline between the A/W 2026 collection’s first and second chapter. Back in March, Vanhée said she wanted to capture the ‘liminal realm’ of twilight, with the show taking place amid a show set of moss and soil, the dimly lit space lit by glowing purple orbs. The sky, said Vanhée, continued to inspire the collection, though here the perpetual twilight of the A/W 2026 collection was replaced by the romantic potential of sunrise or sunset – a symbolic act of throwing open the windows and letting the light in. ‘It’s this idea of having an open horizon; the promises of the beyond,’ she said.
Her adeptness at these travelling collections stands Vanhée in good stead for her latest challenge: the house’s very first couture offering, shown in Paris this July as part of the city’s haute couture week. Already operating in the realm of the superlative, the show will offer even further opportunities for Vanhée to demonstrate the artisanal might of Hermès, a house which continues to thrive despite the luxury slowdown elsewhere (in the first quarter of 2026, revenue was up 6 per cent at constant exchange rates compared with 2025). ‘The idea is to have the ultimate gesture of handmaking,’ she recently told W Magazine. ‘Each piece is going to be one of a kind and belong to one person.’
