The house of Hermès descended on the North Bund Bay of Shanghai on a June evening to present the second chapter of its fall 2025 collection. One would be hard-pressed to name a brand that hasn’t staged a grand affair in China recently, catering to the country’s healthy appetite for fashion (despite the troubling luxury slowdown of 2024). But Hermès’s arrival made poetic sense, given the way artistic director Nadège Vanhée interprets the house’s storied aesthetic traditions in a modern vein. The lines between the modern and traditional blur readily here.
The two halves were linked by the woman, “a very confident, assertive woman,” Vanhée explained backstage before the show, “only this one is in a different city, she’s in Shanghai.” Finding herself in a far-flung place, the theme of “exploration” defined the collection, but Vanhée expressed that classic theme in very clever ways. The show took place on a chic orange set constructed along the Huangpu River. Guests were served champagne with rice wine, a few white grains of it at the bottom of the glass and dainty white wildflowers floating at the top. Lights slowly began to dim like the sun setting down to darkness, before a paneled wall began to cascade open to reveal the river and the Lujiazui skyline across it. As the models moved down the runway, boats with neon lights cruised past with the Oriental Pearl Tower glowing red in the background.
Giving the collection the name “Au Galop!,” Vanhée began with the Dressage Tressage silk carré by Virginie Jamin and the recurring motif was the braid, from the models’ hair to the exquisitely hand-braided white trim on a Kelly bag. It was not only a nod to Hermès’s equestrian roots and house decor, but to the notion of braiding disparate strands together—the traditional and modern, Paris and Shanghai. The collection was most noteworthy for its highly modular nature, as Vanhée wanted to express the notion of timelessness. “So how you can actually transform your clothes so you can have it all the day long, all the season long, but all life long too,” she said.
There were fur jackets the color of good wine and double-faced cashmere lined with Dressage Tressage–printed panels. The styling was inspired by the youthful and slick spirit of Shanghainese street fashion—knits and button-up shirts tied around the waist, only these were cut from fine cashmeres and leathers. Mini Kellys were worn cross-body over the chest or strapped on like a backpack, with help from a soigné silk scarf or two. The scarves also adorned heads, cinched smartly by Hermès rings. Some models wore the luxurious new Hermès leather headphones from Atelier Horizons around their necks, redefining “quiet luxury.”
The pieces all worked a dozen different ways, adding utility to make them actually worth the investment—a smart proposition given that luxury slowdown. Vanhée prompted the viewer to explore the collection and pinpoint its buildable blocks. See: a leather dress zipped up the front that decouples into a sleek pencil skirt and gilet. A long leather coat whose Dressage Tressage printed lining can be detached and worn separately, while the coat’s top half converts into a smart little jacket without obvious fastenings. In this way, the collection’s modern and playful nature still retains the discreet elegance of the Hermès brand, never in your face or overly showy. If you know, you know.