Hermès To Show Resort 2021 In London

Hermès is joining the itinerant set. Creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski will show her upcoming resort collection in London; the news was revealed with characteristic pith on Monday morning. “Hermès is pleased to announce that its resort 2021 collection will be presented in London on April 28th, 2020,” the brand offered, giving no other details, including the specific location or why pre-season wanderlust has suddenly kicked in after years of discretion. Until now, Hermès has done only small resort shows in its Faubourg Saint-Honoré store.

Now it looks as if the storied luxury purveyor will open the season — and early, to boot. Typically, the whirlwind starts the first week of May. As of now, pending date confirmation of Giorgio Armani’s show in Dubai, Hermès will kick off the very worldly resort 2021 tour, which, following London, will move on to Capri for Chanel on May 7th and near the end, to St. Petersburg for Max Mara on May 25. These shows are marketing bonanzas for the brands, and that has extended to their location announcements. So much so that several brands have turned the notice of “where” into a two-part affair. Gucci will show somewhere in the U.S. on May 18th; Prada, somewhere in Japan on May 21st, and Dior, somewhere in Europe on May 27th.

While the traveling resort show is primarily the realm of the major European houses, other brands have experimented as well. This season, Badgley Mischka will unveil its resort 2021 collection not on the road but at sea, on the Queen Mary 2, during the annual seven-day Transatlantic Fashion Crossing that sets sail on May 24th from Southampton, England, to New York.