Fashion Week Handbags: Hermes

Looking through the pictures of an Hermes runway show can be almost anticlimactic – we know that Jean Paul Gaultier is going to do something brilliant and that Hermes only uses the absolute best in luxury materials and finishes. They’ve set such a high bar for themselves that even though the team behind the brand almost always turns out brilliant work, I find that the attitude tends to be, “Of course it’s good. It’s Hermes.” Their perfection can feel repetitive at times.

For Fall/Winter 2010, however, Hermes did something that had a few people wrinkling their noses. Instead of the traditionally luxurious inspirations that we’ve seen them use recently, Gauliter went for a collection based on The Avengers and Emma Peel and created a retro superhero fantasy covered in the finest black leather. I’m not one of those people that’s going to question them – I adored it, from beginning to end. It may have used more leather than some people would have preferred, but leather goods are their bread and butter – why not extend that to normal garments, as well?

As for the bags, you really can’t go wrong with an enormous black crocodile Birkin. Or black croc anything – it was abundant in this show. The tiny Kellys attached to umbrella handles were adorable and irreverent, so long as you only intend to use the umbrella as a walking stick. The regular-size studded Kellys felt a little like they were grabbing on to the tail end of a trend, but the studding was fine enough that the bags still looked fairly fresh and desirable.