Christophe Lemaire at the Hermès “All About Women” event in May in New York. Image Source: nytimes.com
More fashion musical chairs! The Hermès women’s wear designer Christophe Lemaire is leaving “to dedicate myself fully” to his own line. The show in October will be his last.
Anyway, the news comes at an interesting time: Hermès just released its results for the first half of 2014, and ready-to-wear and accessories were up 16 percent — more than leather goods or silks (granted, it was starting at a lower level, but still). That raises the question: Will the fashion house continue to invest in women’s wear, or pull back?
This will be the first real test of Axel Dumas, the chief executive who took the reins this year, and his strategic plans for the brand.
Although Hermès is still widely known as a leather goods and silks brand, Mr. Lemaire’s recent shows had been well received, and he was quietly carving out a convincing style for the luxury name, focused on extraordinary materials and style over fashion.
It came as a sort of antidote to the much more showy work of Jean Paul Gaultier, who had been hired by the former chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas. Despite being at the brand for seven years, from 2003 to 2010, Mr. Gaultier never seemed entirely comfortable with Hermès’s understated approach as defined by its first catwalk designer, Martin Margiela (1997-2003), who was famous for setting his shows to the murmured conversation of women.
Though the “leaving to concentrate on his own brand” line can be interpreted in many ways — some good, some less so — it seems to be genuine in this case. Hermès, however, isn’t saying much about what happens next.
To be specific, Mr. Dumas said: “I am very grateful to Christophe for the passion with which he has addressed and enriched the expression of our house in women’s ready-to-wear. Under his artistic direction the métier has renewed its aesthetic and produced very satisfactory financial results. I wish him the greatest success with his own label which is so close to his heart.”
Nice — and bland.
So will Mr. Dumas follow his late uncle’s strategy and go for a big name, who will bring buzz and global acclaim (and potentially higher costs) to the Hermès shows? Will he take a step back, and go for someone less famous, who may be humbler in the face of the house’s heritage? Will he pull back from women’s wear entirely?
And will LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which owns 23 percent of the shares but thus far has been a seemingly silent investor, have any say in the matter?
All possibilities are on the table. It’s always a big deal when a major house changes designers, but I’d say this is a particularly big one. Not just because Hermès is such a feted name, but because what it does next — demonstrate a belief in the power of the Fashion Show (yes, capital letters intended) as a marketing tool or not — could influence the whole industry.
No pressure there, then. Young designers, start your lobbying.
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