hermès ss26 | wild ride

It’s not often a show cuts through the static of Paris Fashion Week to deliver something so composed, so persuasive, that it redefines the season’s mood. But at Hermès, Nadège Vanhée achieved precisely that. Presented against a pared-down landscape of sand and broken shells, her Spring/Summer 2026 collection felt like a reclamation of elegance – particularly of the house’s leather-bound authority.

The reference point was the Camargue, the French region of salt flats and wild horses, where riding gear is a primal part of life and its wardrobe. This spirit of controlled freedom ran through the collection, softening Hermès’ famously strict equestrian code into something far looser and more sensual.

As the material that has defined the house for nearly two centuries, leather was treated like the protagonist. But instead of stiffness, it was given air and porosity. Panels were perforated, latticed, and spliced into tops that revealed slivers of skin without resorting to vulgarity. A brassiere cut in burnished hide was layered beneath quilted silk, transforming lingerie into sleek armour. A halter crafted from harness straps suggested fierce self-possession rather than external control. These were not tricks of styling, but radical reimaginings of Hermès’ own archive.

Colour was handled with a painter’s restraint. Shades of sand, clay, and khaki formed the base, vibrantly punctuated by sharp jolts of red: trousers that gleamed like enamel, a cropped leather top that smouldered, silk scarves in scarlet flashes against neutral tailoring. The interplay made even the most minimal silhouette hum with intent.

Voluminous skirts moved with the body, their sweep recalling the swirl of a skirt worn on horseback. Minidresses hugged curves but held their dignity in finish and fabric. A butter-soft oxblood coat needed no embellishment; its surface, hand-polished with the same wax used for saddles, carried all the provocation of true luxury. Even bicycle shorts, worn under a quilted silk dress, read as an unexpectedly hot disruption of bourgeois codes.

Among accessories, boots played a key role: they showed up sleek, elongated, and unmistakably equestrian in style, grounding the looks in the tenderness of the sand. Meanwhile, sandals with rope soles offered a lighter, sun-bleached alternative. Belts, harnesses, and the house’s silk scarves functioned as direct extensions of the story.

This was fashion at its most subversive: the looming desire built not on exposure but on the refinement of the garments. Vanhée reminded her audience that allure is not about what’s revealed but what’s intuited – the shimmer of quality, the weight of work, the expensive truth of hand and hide.

In a season dominated by gimmickry and disposable micro-trends, Hermès delivered the audacity of subtlety. The collection left you with the sense that while others chase attention, Hermès continues to shape something rarer: permanence.

 

Discover the collection here.

photography. courtesy of Filippo Fior (runway), Hermès (grand angle)
words. Gennaro Costanzo