Stay Cool with the Buoyant Menswear of Hermès Spring/Summer 2024
Véronique Nichanian beats the heat with spacious silhouettes, floaty construction, and thigh-baring short shorts.
Summer 2023 turned out to be the hottest on record, and with the heatwave showing no signs of abating, Véronique Nichanian decided to beat the swelter with a menswear collection that stirs like a sweet summery breeze. For Spring/Summer 2024, Hermès frees the body with spacious silhouettes and floaty construction. Loose-fitting tunics are gusseted at the collar for extra breathing room. Wide-leg trousers swish and frolic with every step. Even the knits are lightweight enough for the cooler hours. Everything flickers languidly, in a hazy mirage of desert, steam and sage hues.
The heat provides an excellent excuse to show skin; Nichanian does so by exposing a bare torso under superimposed see-through layers, featuring an openwork “graph paper” mesh. Exhibition without stripping — Hermès continues to be an exemplar of good taste. Jackets and shirting in a semi-opaque “tracing paper” fabrication effect gauzy ethereality, their transparencies shifting under daylight to reveal and conceal what’s underneath. Micro-mesh overshirts, T-shirts and tank tops offer ventilation, while a calfskin blouson is perforated with the mosaic motif found in the legendary Hermès headquarters at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
Then there are the short shorts, in crinkled cotton, serge linen and rubberised lambskin. If lofty and erudite Hermès can embrace soaring hems, that decidedly settles the contentious debate on thigh-baring. The boys and their beautiful legs have won the day, and we’re all for it. Slatted sandals with supple soles or rubber notches provide a spring in every stride, while the “sunburnt” Haut à Courroies bag is a playful nod to the scorching sear. Even as temperatures rise, it’s clear that Nichanian keeps her fashionable cool.
