Paris Fashion Week: Hermès designer bows out with final menswear show; Giambattista Valli cancels at last minute; discreet elegance at LV
PARIS — Hermès menswear designer Véronique Nichanian presented her final collection on Saturday in Paris after nearly four decades in the role, as the 71-year-old prepared to pass the baton to young British designer Grace Wales Bonner. (See the show here: https://www.hermes.com/us/en/ )
R&B star Usher mingled with Hermès executive chairman Axel Dumas ahead of the Paris Fashion Week show in the Palais Brongniart, with a more star-studded crowd than usual for the luxury house known for eschewing flashy marketing and celebrity ambassadors.
Models wore silk turtlenecks with leather trousers in a navy blue, black, and taupe palette. Overcoats featured leather patches and shearling lining.
A shiny khaki crocodile-skin suit was a standout look, while Ms. Nichanian also mixed in pieces from earlier collections, like a navy leather suit with topstitched pinstripes from 2003 and a mocha calfskin jumpsuit from 1991. Jackets in orange and yellow provided flashes of color.
Walking out to close the show, Ms. Nichanian got a standing ovation from an audience including fellow designer Paul Smith, rapper Travis Scott and actors James McAvoy and Chace Crawford.
Ms. Wales Bonner named by Hermès in October, is the first Black woman to lead a major fashion house. She will present her debut menswear collection next January.
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI
Italian fashion house Giambattista Valli will not stage its planned Haute Couture show in Paris on Monday due to a review of its business, the brand said on Friday.
“The House is currently undertaking an in-depth review of the organization of its activities in order to ensure the company’s sustainability. Fully focused on this process, it has decided not to hold the show,” the brand said in an e-mailed statement.
Giambattista Valli is majority-owned by Artemis, the Pinault family’s holding that also controls Gucci-owner Kering, itself struggling financially amid a global downturn in luxury spending.
LOUIS VUITTON
Louis Vuitton (LV) men’s designer Pharrell Williams on Tuesday presented a collection of understated elegance in muted tones to kick off Paris Fashion Week.
The fall-winter show was held in a giant cube outside LVMH’s Louis Vuitton Foundation, which houses artworks behind its facade designed by the late American architect Frank Gehry. (You can watch the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VSghNTL_pY)
Inside, models wearing classic dresses in beiges, greys and browns walked across the artificial lawn around what looked like a countryside retreat, with its spacious minimalist design of wood and glass evoking serene seclusion.
Models wore ties, long coats, double-breasted jackets and dark brown leather caps, with deep reds and light yellows providing occasional touches of color.
A string orchestra and gospel-style dancers clapping and swaying to hip-hop beats provided the show’s soundtrack.
Mr. Williams, a Grammy-winning music producer who became Louis Vuitton’s menswear creative director in 2023, walked out at the show’s close to greet an audience that included singer John Legend, rappers Future and Skepta and France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron. — Reuters
