High-flying Hermes
PARIS: Areturn to real values of quality and excellence, as well as a focus on harmony and beauty, was the message as the Paris autumn 2009 season closed Thursday.
And no house represented better the calm face of true luxury than Hermès. Like the tale of the tortoise and the hare, the house has stood apart from all that is brash and bling to appear now a beacon for excellence and a model for elegance.
But instead of the bland face of the classic, Jean Paul Gaultier sent out a gutsy show, based on a photograph he saw of Amelia Earhart with a Hermès scarf tied around her aviator outfit. That silken square appeared only once in the show of malleable leathers. It was tied around an umbrella rather than a classic Hermès bag — although that is another area where, by keeping quiet, the category is irreproachably chic.
The show opened with a crocodile flying jacket, a sportif, nonchalant luxe, as the model walked the runway whose backdrop was a line of whirring propellers. The flight theme was nothing to do with today's crowded chaos or the super-rich world of private jets but, instead, the strong, adventurous woman of those early flights — mixed with a touch of Casablanca. That was on the soundtrack and also in the faint feeling of the 1940s that is another strong fashion story.
Gaultier can work a theme to death but this was deftly handled with a slender coat dress in the finest leather or just a fur collar added to a zippered jacket giving the sense of glamour to the models in their aviator helmets. But even if hoods were prevalent, the show was not all on the flight path. A calf-length coat with half belt at the back swished with urban elegance. The designer's tailoring skills are perfectly framed by the taste and class of Hermès. Let's hope that the costume designer for Hilary Swank in the Earhart movie that comes out later this year does half as good as job.
suzy menkes, iht.com
