Long Game. Hermès AW26

Hermès’s Véronique Nichanian has always insisted that luxury is not a spectacle but a system, and in her final season, that conviction crystallized into a collection that elegantly distills her 37 years at the maison. This was Nichanian’s long game, and she won. Her celebrated détails égoïstes – those “selfish” refinements that reward only the wearer – were everywhere: the interior of a jacket as considered as its exterior, a zip as impeccably functional as it is beautiful, off-center bellows pockets, étrivière stitching, double lambskin lapels. These are clothes that recognize one another instantly, like old friends reunited, hand and eye aligned through private signals of craft.

A crocodile-leather coat in the inkiest shade of black, a reversible cashmere-and-wool travel jacket, a double-breasted suit in pinstriped leather: each piece stands on its own yet remains quietly mobile, designed for lives in motion rather than moments of display. Nothing feels “too much”. Instead, the collection moves with assurance through a season conceived to endure far beyond itself. Nichanian’s departure – serene,but grand – opens space for the impending arrival of Grace Wales Bonner, whose debut remains a year away. Yet this collection resists the tone of farewell. It plays more like a manifesto: a reminder that at Hermès, innovation has always emerged from renewing the bond between body, garment, and time. Clothes for now, and – stubbornly – for forever.