Hermès artistic director Nadège Vanhée titled her spring 2025 collection “Inside the Workshop,” a nod both to the incredible leather craftsmanship that takes place in the ateliers of the 187-year-old French maison and to the role her clothes play in women’s work lives out in the world. She was thinking of movers and shakers who burn the midnight oil in pursuit of a creative vision and who favor a chic personal uniform over trendy fashion. “Style as something ceaselessly crafted, forged, timeless and unique,” is how the show notes put it.
What that amounted to were sleek, sporty separates altogether lighter in mood than the Hippodrome de Longchamp-meets-Hells Angels looks in her two-part fall 2024 collection shown in Paris and New York. Hermès’s origin is as a saddlemaker, so there was still plenty of leather of course, including a great selection of spring outerwear like quilted bomber jackets and belted trench coats, as well as pleated wide-leg pants, utility shirts with rolled sleeves, and snap-front gilets. But they were styled with airy pieces such as sheer tops and pants, and tops worn over tonal knit bralettes and briefs, which played with light and opacity.
Bralettes and/or briefs featured in more than half the looks, which felt in sync with the merging of sportswear and activewear we’ve been seeing on the runways this season. When so many of us now work hybrid or fully remote schedules, that “workshop” Vanhée was thinking of doesn’t have to be a conventional office. Who among us doesn’t secretly love the ease and comfort of an L.A.-style après yoga look? A silk mesh maxi skirt with tearaway-like zip side vents worn with a skinny Médor belt buckled on briefs proudly peeking out offered an elevated alternative to Spandex.
On-the-go bags including the Plume top handle and an inside-out Birkin that revealed its interior construction including metal taps used for reinforcement looked like they would easily accommodate a laptop. The color palette had the soft focus of a watercolor painting, with soothing shades of bronze green, ebony brown, camel, and nutmeg. Denim came in alabaster (on a reversible utility jacket like the one Vanhée took her bow in) and rose bougainvillea (on trouser jeans that matched the carpeted runway). All the better for getting in the flow.
