Hermes Fall 2012

It’s still hard to believe that the brand’s former creative director of Lacoste, Christophe Lemaire, took over at Hermes following the departure of Jean Paul Gaultier. The head honchos at LVMH clearly knew what they were doing because the designer followed up his first two outings with yet another strong lineup.

Hermes built its heritage on travel, so it’s fitting that the brand’s collections are often inspired by that. High comfort factor of most of the looks aside, this season that was most evident in the poncho-like blue fringed cape coat, gaucho pants, capes, and in the tapestry-like Oriental prints. Sticking with the relaxed silhouettes showed last season, blanket coats, belted-at-the-waist oversized coats, menswear-inspired loosely fitted coats, baggy trousers, and draped leather all made their way down the runway.

Leather has been featured prominently from New York to Paris this season, and made its was onto the runway looking so butter soft that even a head-to-toe black leather look appeared refined and was particularly notable. As for the bags, a hard black briefcase-inspired bag worn with a long strap was the new silhouette of the season (though it was inspired by the archives).

image: IMAXtree