Nautical utility is seamlessly interwoven with the equestrian heritage of the house: knotted ropes which mirror braids and bridles become cable details in jumpers; illustrations from a 17th century equestrian treatise, Della Cavalleria, translate into paisley prints and intricate embroidery. Goatskin sailor shorts and lambskin mini-dresses are decorated with palladium horse bits; even the stitching applied to leather takes inspiration from the traditional techniques of saddlery. Workwear silhouettes and tuxedo tailoring are adapted to contemporary femininity: cargo and tuxedo trousers made modern by their precise proportions; utilitarian denim double-woven to reveal underside glimpses of Bourgogne red. These eclectic narratives, and the shapes they inform, are united and intermittently interspersed throughout the collection with compelling repetition, both new and familiar at once.
Silk twill scarves continue to inspire: appropriated, deconstructed and amplified, here they become bias-cut skirts, cardigans and twillaine dresses, sometimes silhouettes of the original, sometimes a repeat of their illustrations printed over each other. One example, decorated with marbles, becomes a variant of a polka-dot dress, fastened with bespoke resin imitations of the marbles in lieu of buttons. The elegance of these classic scarves is treated with apparent irreverence, but their manifestation is meticulously refined.
A saturated, solar palette of aurora oranges, ocean blues and cantaloupe yellows pays tribute to the season. Here the worlds of reality and imagination are blurred: summer sophistication refracted through a prism of feminine fantasy.
HERMES: G Floor, Central Embassy Tel. 02 160 5890-1; M Floor, Siam Paragon Tel 02 129 4800-1. Open 10.00 - 20.00.
