Hermès Brings New York Je Ne Sais Quoi to Second Fall Runway Show

Hermès landed in New York Thursday night, taking over Pier 36 — built out with big yellow stoplights hanging over the runway and a Hermes “Manhattan Rocabar” cocktail bar — to debut the second chapter of artistic director of women’s ready-to-wear Nadège Vanhée’s fall show.

Over the past few years, the French house has been luring a new generation of customers, with Instagrammable events, pop-up gyms and runway collections mixing traditional luxury codes with more playful styles, including short shorts for the Netflix “Emily in Paris” set. The brand has also been taking the runway on the road to Los Angeles and Brooklyn, and expanding its retail footprint.

It’s paid off. As reported by WWD, the firm has been a bright spot in the wobbly luxury sector, with first-quarter sales up 17 percent, and sales in the Americas up 12 percent.

Which led the brand once again to New York, its biggest U.S. market.

During an exclusive preview with WWD, Vanhée said the house has always had a high regard for New York. “I think it’s really a city where different creatives come and get inspiration from,” she said. “I think we probably connect with our youth here.”

The collection’s overall message and inspirations directly touched on the Big Apple. Even while designing the first act of her fall women’s collection, which debuted during Paris Fashion Week, the creative director said holding a New York-inspired and -located show was always in mind. 

With the growth of the brand’s ready-to-wear, the collections have gotten bigger, with multiple chapters, so there was plenty for a second show, she said. And Americans do love a sequel.

“When I design, I have many different stories, so when I worked on the fashion show, there was another story that I really wanted to pull out,” she said.

Vanhée recalled her first time moving to New York City a decade ago — living here three years when she was in her early 30s and working as the women’s design director at The Row. She left a decade ago but New York never left her, and she’s still fueled by the energy and visits regularly, noting her routine consists of waking up early — “it’s not like Paris where everything is closed,” she said.

“You wake up, you can do your sport and have coffee with friends. I go into galleries and bookshops, like Dashwood Books. I always love to hang out around Lafayette [Street, in Noho],” she said. 

In that vein, the luxury French house’s “#HermesFemme” teaser images and videos on Instagram featuring modern Hermès women traipsing down the streets of New York, with captions like “a radiant sprawl of urban possibilities” and “buzzing city” speaking to the idea of putting Hermès in the streets of the city that never sleeps.

The collection connected the Paris runway’s proposals — inspired by the idea of riding, both traditional horseback riding and more rebellious motor bike riding — to the eclectic, colorful vibe of New York.

The piece of brand heritage Vanhée picked up on to tell her story this time was the “Rocabar” striped horse blanket. In using it, she wanted to “conjure a tradition of play and collaboration across cultures and languages,” the brand said. This led to channeling the city’s energy and cultural vibrancy into both riding styles’ fashions and an optimistic range of patterns and luxe fabrications.

During a preview, Vanhee showed sexy black ribbed leather leggings and stellar pointy leather cowboy boots styled with a taxi cab yellow trenchcoat, as well as a vibrant blue double-rosette collar turtleneck and silky quilted bed jacket.

A pair of trousers in the same hue sported quilted knee patches while equestrian riding pants came in traffic-stopping red. Both were styled with the house’s signature silk scarves worn around the waist beneath studded skinny belts, Arçon bags and luxe brown outerwear, as in a furry jacket and leather riding blazer. Even the collection’s leather mariner caps, still very Parisian, had that New York edge done in black leather.

“It’s really about the zigzag between Paris and New York,” she said, adding that the sum was even greater than the two.

“I think you will see a much more complete vision of a Hermès woman,” she said, noting the show’s styling of heritage pieces with modern and eclectic touches. 

“The idea is really an ode to the streets of New York where you have different personalities, psychologies and styles and you have something that looks like an attractive patchwork.”