Hermès Women’s Fall/Winter 2021
- December 3, 2021
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18,682
Infused with radiant mystery, power, an aura, cavalières, if not Amazons, stride forth in the lines of this new collection. If asked, they might not even recall these last few months, preferring to remember more uncomplicated times.
For some women, being stuck in a rut, remaining motionless, are purely abstract ideas, for they are all about movement. It is urgent now to live again, to venture forth into the unknown, to gain a new lease of life. It is a time of rebuilding: so much remains to be explored, beginning with womanhood, a concept that has changed quite a lot these past few years. Time flies, which is surelya sign that we need to reinvent ourselves.
This collection is an expression of the desire to explore the sensuality of new mythologies.
The checkered pattern works like a painting that gets right to the point, with a gesture as pure and simple as adorning the human form with rectangles. Clothes as suitable for nightlife as for everyday life; opposites no longer opposed; contradictions fly out the window as classifications disappear into the play of fabrics and pleats. A clou Médor opens and closes a clasp; a suit is cut parka-style, ignoring the rules of tailoring.The padded anorak makes an appearance, and though there are pants, they are cycling pants.
In counterpoint, trim such as one finds on cashmere blankets. And long jackets, coats, and ponchos with integrated scarves supplying the protection one needs to feel strong, without ever hindering movement. Something to wear while taking the present in stride.
NEW YORK – PARIS – SHANGHAI, A PRESENTATION IN THREE ACTS
How can we put on a fashion show in today’s world? When times are challenging, we must challenge our own habits.Let us feel free to connect with other cities, other cultures. Let us attempt to be creative together—albeit from a distance. Let us dare to do what we have always done with passion: initiate a dialogue with other art forms. Let us innovate; let us produce what can only be called a triptych.More than a fashion show: a living performance, in three acts.
At the heart of this three-part performance is a socially distanced Paris fashion show at the Garde républicaine, broadcast live on various media. The “prologue” takes place not in Paris but in New York, at the Armory Show, where choreographer Madeline Hollander will start things off with a free interpretation of the movements gleaned from Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski’s collection.
At the close of the Paris show it’ll be over to Shanghai, where dancers under the direction of choreographer Gu Jiani will conclude the triptych, injecting renewed energy and strength into the collection.
Breathing life into clothes by making them our own. Dancing a collection to infuse other bodies, other cities, with movement—even after the show is over.
Might those three moments in different parts of the world conjure up a new woman? Who knows, so swift is the pace of life...
And finally, to preserve this utopian project (what could be more utopian than fashion?), we asked Sébastien Lifshitz—a genre-crossing filmmaker steeped in modern dance and fashion—to film the last stages of the triptych’s conception.
From New York to Paris, from Paris to Shanghai, three different ways of breathing life into clothes through movement.
Three singularly different approaches, creating a sequence.
What more satisfying way, in 2021, to inhabit the world together?
