Hermès Picnic-Chic S/S´24 Show

For spring/summer 2024, Hermès’s creative director Nadège Vanhée imagined “an impromptu picnic”. Below, see five key takeaways from British Vogue critic Anders Christian Madsen.

It was about the power of colour

As the keeper of the magical unicorn forest of Hermès, Nadège Vanhée doesn’t have to think about tempering her expression to the current taste for quiet luxury. Hermès masters that stuff with its eyes closed. Rather, the designer is in the opposite position. Within the timeless sophistication that defines the house, she has the power to shift things up with the tiniest gestures of intrigue. She did that on Saturday evening in a show that took its point of departure in the power of colour: “I wanted to work with the balance of red,” she said. “Passion, power, sexiness – of course – and sophistication.”

It was set in a meadow

In a vast structure erected within the courtyard of the Garde Républicaine, Vanhée constructed an urban oasis: a hay-strewn meadow of tall grass (all of which will be replanted after the show) where she imagined “an impromptu picnic, unhurried chatter, birdsong, a lack of constraints.” It was a polite affair: a breezy sanctuary from the hustle bustle not just on the micro scale of a grueling month of shows but on the macro scale of current affairs. Vanhée dressed her picnic in a calm palette of taupe, cream and black interrupted by the fiery reds that ignited the passion she was talking about.

Things got sexy

At first glance, Vanhée’s wardrobe was polite: long, slender lines, lightweight constructions and a kind peplos-y feel underscored by sandals. When you looked closer, hints of sensuality started peeping through the silhouettes. “Uncovering you without exposing you,” as the designer would have it, there was an eroticism to the collection manifested, more than anything, in the leather bras she paired with assertive skirts and midriffs, and the zipped crop tops and leather minidresses that followed.

It was about friendship

Next to the sexiness, Vanhée wanted to convey a sense of friendship. “Female friendship, and the friendship of clothes,” as she put it. It was evident in the picnic setting populated by her female models in their down-to-earth sandals and un-dressed – if not underdressed – silhouettes, but on a more figurative scale, in garments that embraced the body and amplified the comfort that’s always central to Hermès.

Bags came with bundles of grass

In the bag department, Vanhée embraced her meadow picnic theme in bags – the Birkin, the Arçon, the Panier d’été, the Pochette d’été – infrequently stuffed with bundles of grass. The Hermès sandals – whose propagation you only need to spend a week in a holiday destination to witness – evolved in easy strappy interpretations that completed the season’s picnic chic.