By Helen Reid
PARIS, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Hermès creative director Nadège Vanhée presented an airy spring/summer collection using gauzy fabrics at Paris Fashion Week on Saturday.
Models wore loose-knit brown and black tops and dresses revealing bandeau tops underneath, or mesh dresses embroidered with panels of fine leather strips.
Open latticework was also used on cream leather bucket handbags, and models mostly wore flat, minimalist leather sandals, with the occasional knee-high leather boot. Midi-length leather dresses and skirts were sliced into thigh-high strips, and trousers too had side zips open for ventilation.
In a bright white show space inside the Garde Republicaine, the sprawling barracks of Paris’ mounted gendarmes, guests including actors Sofia Vergara and Emmy Rossum fanned themselves on an unusually warm and sunny October day.
The collection had splashes of colour, too, with a billowing parka in bright orange worn over a knit mini dress, and a zipped skirt in what Vanhée called sunflower yellow, paired with a matching high-collared jacket.
Vanhée has been womenswear creative director since 2014 for Hermes, which caters to the ultra-wealthy and tightly controls access to its products, with years-long waiting lists for its most exclusive handbags. She will present the first haute couture collection for the brand in January.
Hermes is one of many major luxury brands showing at Paris Fashion Week, which started on Monday and runs through October 6, with Chanel and Louis Vuitton runway shows still to come.
The group is grappling with a slowdown in demand for luxury handbags and clothes and its shares are down 39% since the start of this year.
(Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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