Hermès A/W 2019 Paris Fashion Week Men's
![Backstage at Hermès A/W 2019](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Kf7ZuoD3GhstNwj9tRSF77-415-80.jpg)
Mood board: The notes to Véronique Nichanian’s latest collection opened with the words: ‘a sophisticated simplicity.’ She is always reassuringly confident and composed. Simplicity is what the house does well. The code of its menswear offering is daywear with smart, sincere flair. The finest textiles are teased to behave in surprising ways. A relaxed reserve. Tactility and tone. The invitation to the show was a fine deep-blue slice of card onto which the thinly etched type was barely visible. In its radical minimalism there is a serenity.
Best in show: Blousons were key – the jacket-cum-shirt style is an ideal piece for trans-seasonal dressing but also speaks to the merging of lives. The clashing of formality and frivolity, work and play. It is a style that sits in-between styles. Three button suits in quilted wool flannel felt fresh. Over-shirts had large curved stripes in rubberised lambskin and were lined in the house’s water-repellent Toilbright technical fabric in silver. Standout were the shearling pieces; a short double-breasted black bomber with nubby collar and a longer contrasted style. The tailoring to trousers was relaxed and wide with a single-pleat and cotton gabardine tab. A pair in patinated calfskin took on the look and attitude of a chino.
Scene setting: The show was staged at the Mobilier National – a bureau responsible for the administration of all furniture and objects in the royal residences since 1870. Today, under the supervision of the French Ministry of Culture, it continues to manage furniture belonging to the state and has amassed an impressive collection of icons of French design. Guests sat amongst row upon row of industrial orange and blue shelving, on which was placed furniture once owned by France’s heads of state. From baroque console tables to a 1960s metal chair by Olivier Mourgue, or a large Pierre Paulin desk from 1985 that belonged to Francois Mitterrand, the display brought to mind the respect that France has for beautiful things. Nichanian’s straightforward elegance was right at home.
Hermès A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Hermès A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Hermès A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Hermès A/W 2019. Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
London based writer Dal Chodha is editor-in-chief of Archivist Addendum — a publishing project that explores the gap between fashion editorial and academe. He writes for various international titles and journals on fashion, art and culture and is a contributing editor at Wallpaper*. Chodha has been working in academic institutions for more than a decade and is Stage 1 Leader of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins. In 2020 he published his first book SHOW NOTES, an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Louis Vuitton A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Chanel A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Y/Project A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Sacai A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Alexander McQueen A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Akris A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Givenchy A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women’s
By Laura Hawkins Last updated
-
Valentino A/W 2020 Paris Fashion Week Women's
By Laura Hawkins Last updated