Hermès Leather and Silk Colors for Spring/Summer 2020

January is here and the new Spring/Summer 2020 pieces are already flooding into the stores. This is always exciting, because after the last few months of press day photos and snippets of info trickling in, we finally get our seasonal questions answered.

Usually there is quite a lot we can rely on: there will be Birkins and Kellys; there will be scarves; there will be ready-to-wear; but its the details that we spend at least two or three months beforehand pondering over. What will the new designs be? What will the new takes on old designs be? What colors will all of these things be produced in?

Generally, Hermès works with several different color families per season among its different departments: leather goods, scarves, ready to wear and shoes each has their own seasonal colors (and, to be perfectly honest, I really have yet to determine why they cant just keep the shoe colors the same as the leather goods, especially when the shoes are made of leather. Hermès, some of us are still trying to match our shoes to our bags…)

These seasonal colors are most prominently discernible in the leather goods department: bags, belts and SLGs (small leather goods, such as wallets, pouches and coinholders). It would be somewhat easy if Hermès only produced its goods in their seasonal colors, but that would not be very practical unless black and gold were colors every season. Therefore, Hermès also has colors that can almost always be found. In addition to the seasonal colors and the semi-permanent colors (colors do rotate in and out, but much less frequently, so I hesitate to call them permanent), they also will generally keep producing some holdover colors from prior seasons and then they will also bring back a few colors from prior years.

I’m going to be honest: this does get kind of confusing to me, and also a bit unwieldy, and sometimes I get the feeling that a Magic 8 Ball is involved in determining the color lists for each season (how else did Hermès determine that we needed so many shades of BROWN for SPRING??).

At the complete opposite end of the organizational spectrum is the color families for Hermès scarves for Spring/Summer 2020. Over the last few seasons Hermès has introduced actual, literal color families for the scarves and have been producing scarf designs in these particular colorways. These families have names, which are abbreviated to two letters and are listed on the tag before the main scarf colors (when this was originally introduced, Hermès apparently forgot to tell its web designers about this and they interpreted the abbreviations as the first color for each scarf, leading to such confusion as listing the dominant color on a scarf starting with ME as menthe [green] when the scarf had no green at all, but which was part of the MEditerrannee color family). Where the leather colors offered seem to ramble a bit, the scarf colors are more specific. Most of the scarves are produced in these particular families, with some additional outliers. Fortunately, most of the leather colors – seasonal, holdover and (semi) permanent – are included to some degree in the scarf colorways, and while each scarf color family is dominated by a particular scheme, the scarves themselves are detailed enough to accommodate enough colors so that, overall, each season the customer should be able to find at least a few scarves that will go with whatever particular color or tone they need.

So, lets get to the colors!

Leather Goods – Spring Summer 2020 Seasonal Colors

The seasonal colors for leather for Spring/Summer 2020 are:

• Bleu Brume
• Bronze Dore
• Curry
• Foin
• Lime
• Nata
• Navy
• Sesame
• Terre Battue
• Vert Criquet
• Vert Maquis

Most of these seasonal colors are new, with the exceptions of lime, terre battue and curry.

Quite honestly, when I first saw these colors, I personally wasn’t too thrilled. First, these seemed to be rather muted for spring and summer, and second, brown and green seemed to dominate, whereas I prefer bright colors and jewel tones (and plenty of pink). Then, I remembered that although these are the seasonal colors, these aren’t the only colors. There will be plenty of “holdovers” from Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2019, in addition to the colors that you can regularly find. In fact, if you look through PurseForum, various Instagram accounts, and Hermès boutiques and their website, you may continue to see the following colors (this list is an attempt to be comprehensive, but I’m sure it’s not):

Regular Leathers

• Anemone
• Bambou
• Beige de Weimar (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Beton
• Bleu du Nord (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)
• Bleu Electrique
• Bleu Encre
• Bleu Indigo
• Bleu Nuit
• Bordeaux
• Cactus (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)
• Ciel
• Craie
• Deep Blue (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Etain
• Etoupe
• Feu
• Gold
• Gris Asphalte
• Gris Perle
• Jaune Ambre
• Jaune de Naples (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)
• Kraft (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Malachite
• Mauve Sylvestre (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)
• Noir
• Raisin
• Rose Azalee
• Rose Confetti
• Rose d’Ete (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Rose Extreme
• Rose Jaipur
• Rose Pourpre
• Rose Sakura
• Rouge de Coeur (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)
• Rouge Grenat
• Rouge H
• Rouge Piment
• Sienne (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Vert Amande (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Vert Bosphore (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Vert Cyprès
• Vert Rousseau (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Vert Olive
• Vert Verone (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)

Ostrich

• Blue Glacier
• Blue Indigo
• Cobalt
• Gris Asphalte
• Jaune Citrone (Ostrich Boreale)
• Parchemin
• Rose Bubblegum (Ostrich Boreale)
• Rouge Coeur (Ostrich Boreale)
• Safran
• Tabac Camel
• Terre Cuite
• Vert Titian

Matte Alligator

• Bougainvillier
• Bordeaux
• Graphite
• Noir
• Rose Shocking
• Vanille

Shiny Niloticus Crocodile

• Bleu Baltique
• Noir
• Rose Pourpre
• Vert Rousseau

Shiny Porosus Crocodile

• Cactus
• Cassis
• Tabac Camel

In addition, Hermès will be producing many different verso combinations for Spring/Summer 2020. Depending on the bag and leather, they are expected to include:

Verso

• Aqua/Cobalt (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Bambou/Cactus
• Feu/Rose Eglantine (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Gold/Craie
• Havane/Etrusque (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Jaune de Naples/Mauve Sylvestre (holdover from Spring/Summer 2019)
• Menthe/Bleu Atoll (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Rouge Vif/Rose Confetti (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)
• Rouge Vif/Rose d’Ete
• Vert Bosphore/Rose d’Ete (holdover for Fall/Winter 2019)
• Vert Titian/Blue Azteque (holdover from Fall/Winter 2019)

(Many MANY thanks to TPFer @Hermes_Insider for providing very helpful color info.)

Silk

The seasonal color families for silk for Spring/Summer 2020 are:

• DR: a red/blue/white colorway with two main variants: red dominating or blue dominating
• TR: an orange/white colorway, usually with main accents of blue and/or pink
• PD: a bright pink colorway, usually accented with either yellow/blue/green, or brown
• OC: a blue/green colorway with two main variants: light blue/green/white or dark blue/lavender/green
• HG: a neutral colorway featuring gray, brown and/or dark navy
• LU: a yellow/gray colorway with white

Remember that these colorways are dominant for the season, but there will be some outliers, too: Hermès usually offers several monochromatic options; scarves that are predominantly one or two colors (pink, blue, etc.); and scarves that don’t necessarily fit into one of the above color families.

Due to the wide variety of leather colors being offered this season, there will be plenty of options for those who like to coordinate their scarves with their bags. For example, let’s look at the seasonal leather colors. At first glance they might not blend neatly with the silk color families, but there will be silk options for each color. Remember that it’s very early in the season, and as the weeks pass new options will continue to trickle into the boutiques and online.

(I’m putting this here again so that you don’t have to scroll all the way up and down)

• Bleu Brume: OC, DR and TR color families all include light blue and PR has light blue accents.
• Bronze Dore: PD has various shades of brown, as does HG.
• Curry: Accents in TR, PD and HG.
• Foin: HG. There are also lighter brown accents in PD and TR.
• Lime: PD and LU feature bright yellow.
• Nata: this will probably work with just about everything except white.
• Navy: DR and OC will have scarves that match; there may also be options in the TR color family.
• Sesame: PD has neutrals in addition to HG.
• Terre Battue: I have yet to see a scarf that will match this color exactly, but we will probably see accents in HG and PD, with possibilities in TR and OC.
• Vert Criquet: there are scarves in the OC, TR and PD color families that will be a perfect match.
• Vert Maquis: There are accents of this color in DR, TR and OC. and PD.

This goes for most (if not all) of the colors Hermès is currently offering in the leather department. Some of the scarves have many colors, so it won’t be difficult to find at least a nice accent in a new scarf for most of the colors available this season. Happy Spring Shopping!