Watch the Herms Men’s Spring-Summer 2021 Collection Video – Robb Report

Normally, at this stage of the summer, the male junket would have already made its way across Europe and seen the collections of next spring. But during a pandemic, the old fashion show circuit is equivalent to a super spreading world tour. In short, it does not happen. London Men’s Fashion Week has pivoted to an online platform, who had a lot of arty movies but not a lot of new clothes. Pitti Uomo is being redesigned as a digital storefront, which is expected to debut in the coming weeks. Milan Men’s Fashion Week has been postponed to September, as some brands have chosen to present online in the meantime. But, true to Bogie’s promise, we will always have Paris. French ready-to-wear collections are continuing, with digital distribution planned for this Thursday.

It’s a format that is essentially unexplored territory for the industry – apart from a virtual presentation of Chanel’s resort collection last month, which was widely judged a failure (not the clothes, but the models sweeping an approximation of the sound scene from Capri to about twenty Muzak department stores). If a brand like Chanel, which is known for its breathtaking runway productions with life-size icebergs and rockets, couldn’t figure out how to make a digital fashion show compelling, who can? Well, yesterday’s Hermès show proves that it can be done – and done well.

From 2 p.m. Paris time (8 a.m. Sunday morning for this New York writer), the brand made its debut with its latest men’s fashion collection via a serenely elegant video on its website. Unlike many digital devices parade attempts so far, the Hermés show was a livestream. This is just one of the reasons why it seemed to be a successful alternative to a traditional runway presentation: it captured some of the energy that one feels while sitting in a dark place, watching the models rush each other, wringing your neck in anticipation of what the look will turn the next corner.

This energy spilled every seven minutes and sixteen seconds, which was intentional. Rather than just filming catwalk looks, Hermés chose to capture the behind-the-scenes scene of a typical fashion show – with helmet producers enticing models to step forward and dressers rubbing jackets, forcing them to drape. Shot at the brand’s headquarters on the outskirts of Paris and entitled “Hors-Champ”, French for off-camera, the video is a collaboration between the creator, Véronique Nichanian, and the artistic director Cyril Teste.

“Although the current situation prohibits a live audience, spectators will be able to see behind the scenes … the boys are waiting for their time, some are laughing, others under the influence of their phones, models who are not actors, surrounded by photographers, “said Nichanian in a Q&A. that accompanied the notes of the show. “These classic moments off camera of a show, the glimpses that we generally don’t get are precisely what, for once, will be visible to everyone.”

They were just guys – albeit incredibly young, slim and attractive – guys. This made the collection (which, it must be said, magnificent) even more attractive. You easily get an idea of ​​how these clothes will translate into real life. In fact, the entire presentation was a carefully choreographed performance from real life. What he lacked in the pomp and the circumstances of a conventional parade, he compensated for what these shows normally lack: the emphasis on details, a frankness without fuss, intimacy.

In my experience, the genius of a Hermés collection is usually only revealed during a re-see – go one-on-one after the show when you are able to see and touch the clothes from close. This format offered the viewer some of the advantages of this immediacy from nose to jacquard. Because of the way it was filmed, you could almost feel the crisp poplin of the airy shirt jackets and the soft leather of a duffel bag. At one point in the video, Nichanian asked the cameraman to come closer to show the stripes on the sleeve of a shirt and the leather piping spliced ​​between the ribs of a sweater – subtle details which, if I looked these parts of the parade audience, I would almost certainly have missed. A video helps better appreciate the silent consideration that makes Nichanian’s creations so desirable.

“Circumstances forced me to reduce my efforts … It is very gratifying to focus on the essentials and to distill, refine, sharpen,” she says. “Everything was going in one direction, the one I wanted to follow for this collection: simplicity, nonchalance, lightness.” Nichanian’s abandonment of all that is superfluous also applies to the presentation. Rather than the usual programming of around forty looks, the show has been reduced to eighteen.

One of the main problems facing virtual fashion shows is to hold the attention of the spectator long enough to integrate an entire collection. The combination of a tightly edited collection, the excitement of the action taking place in real time, dynamic camera work and a dreamy soundtrack made Hermès captivating, at least as far as fashion shows (they will never be a Marvel movie, although maybe that is an idea…) It didn’t quite rival the magic of a really great show, but it did prove that this format had its own merits. And, since it seems that the in-person broadcasts are not returning to normal for a while, this has provided a model for what could be accomplished otherwise. Fashion brands, take note: this is how you make a digital presentation.