Timeless elegance and classic cuts at French luxury leader Hermes

Timeless elegance at French luxury leader Hermes

PARIS — Hermes stepped back from the fashion fray on Saturday by delivering a collection of timeless pieces that willfully snubbed trendiness.

The storied label’s menswear offerings for fall-winter 2010-2011 made nearly no concessions to the fads that have swept other Paris catwalks, including proposing slouchy longjohns as a stand-in for pants and relieving blazers of their sleeves. Hermes’ menswear designer, Veronique Nichanian, served up to-die-for suits with straight-leg pants remarkable only for their perfect cut and sweaters that retired French soccer international Lilian Thuram — a front row guest — said he was already coveting.

“For me, what’s important is to have clothes that last and age gracefully,” Nichanian told The Associated Press in a post-show interview. “Season after season, I tell the same story — of quality and effortless chic — and the wardrobe of the (Hermes) man gets richer with each season.”

Nichanian’s sole nods to ever-shifting street-style were the neon orange lining on some of the blazers, a zip-front jacket in crocodile that looked like the world’s most expensive hoodie and the bad boy chains dangling from the belts (albeit sterling silver chains).

The rest of the pieces — which included slim overcoats worn with leather belts, velvet jackets in slate and mauve and cashmere V-neck sweaters — were timeless in a manner befitting a house that has been forging a reputation for handmade excellence since its start as a saddlemaker in 1837.