28/01/2026

LYFE WEDNESDAY | JAN 28, 2026

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Hermes queen takes final bow o Veronique Nichanian receives standing ovation for last runway show F RANCE’S Veronique Nichanian received a standing ovation at her final runway show for Hermes last re-invention. Her final collection for Fall-Winter 2026, which included outfits inspired by her work in the 1990s and early 2000s, “underlines how Hermes clothes are timeless,” she said. She will be replaced by

Saturday after 37 years as chief menswear designer, the end of an era at the family-run firm. “I’m feeling emotional, it’s my decision to stop and do something else. “It’s a decision I’ve thought through carefully because I feel it’s the right moment for me, and for the house,” the 71-year-old told AFP afterwards The departure of the doyenne of Paris fashion adds to the upheaval at the top of the luxury clothing sector over the last 12 months, which has seen a new generation of designers promoted at brands including Chanel, Dior and Gucci. Many of them were barely in school when Nichanian took over menswear at Hermes in 1988 with instructions from then company boss Jean-Louis Dumas to run it “like your small company”. The Paris-born designer helped transform a niche luxury brand known for its scarves and leather goods into a global fashion profit machine with sales of menswear estimated at several billion euros a year. Her design philosophy mirrors her own discreet personality, with a focus on quality and comfort through quiet evolutions, rather than flashy

30-something London designer Grace Wales Bonner, founder of her own Wales Bonner label who will produce her first Hermes collection next year. Wales Bonner, whose work draws on her father’s Afro-Caribbean roots in Jamaica and British tailoring, represents a generational and stylistic shift for the classic French brand. “Grace Wales Bonner is very modern, committed. Hermes has chosen someone who will bring not only quality, but also an image and a point of view,” France’s Liberation newspaper fashion journalist said Marie Ottavi. Macho milieu On the eve of her last show, Nichanian told the Business of Fashion website that no one at Hermes had said “you have to stop” but she had felt the need to step back due to the frenetic pace of the corporate business. “There’s so much change, it loses something magic, the something that makes people happy. “When I talk to my friends at the different houses, they’re not happy. It’s not only insecurity, it’s pressure,”

Nichanian at the end of her last show for Hermes’s Menswear ready-to-wear Fall-Winter 2026/2027 collection as part of the Men Paris Fashion Week.

lambskin-lined pocket. “We, women, can sometimes make concessions to comfort. But men, never,” she told Le Figaro newspaper in 2018. Men’s Fashion Week concluded last Sunday with a show by Jacquemus and the start of Haute Couture Week has started on Monday.

she confided she had had to “work harder” as a woman in “a pretty macho milieu and the men didn’t expect a woman to tell them what to do.” As well as her gradual modernising touch, she has also won fans for her attention to what she calls “selfish” details, hidden touches of luxury such as a

she told the website about the fashion industry. She will remain in charge of men’s accessories and silk at Hermes. The Armenian-origin designer started her career with Italian legend Nino Cerruti, who plucked her from her Paris fashion school, L’Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Speaking to AFP in 2014,

LYFE’S LOOKBOOK

The Autumn shades define the entire collection.

Loosely-fitted sweater paired with tailored straight pants.

AFTER having helmed Hermes menswear for more than three decades, Veronique Nichanian hands over the baton Grace Wales Bonner as the new menswear creative director, ushering a new era for the luxury brand. However, her mark has not gone unnoticed and will continue define menswear across generation as Nichanian’s vision of timeless style spread across the sartorial scene. Building a legacy around the philosophy“sensuality of fabric”, here is a final look at her Hermes for the Menswear ready-to-wear Fall-Winter 2026/2027 collection.

Muted colours such as pale yellow ochre breathes subtle life into the collection. – ALL PICS FROM AFP

Leather pants is a recurring piece in the entire collection.

Relaxed but tailored silhouettes usher in an era of comfort and style.