Hermès Ready-to-Wear for Resort 2026 Gallops Ahead While Remaining Grounded

“Au Galop!”, the name Hermès‘ artistic director Nadège Vanhée has given to her Resort 2026 collection, translates literally to “galloping.” This is no surprise for a fashion house with a history so thoroughly rooted in the equestrian world.

Figuratively, Au Galop also means at a fast pace or quickly: an intriguing title, and definitely a less obvious choice for a Ready-to-Wear season, unless one has been paying attention to Vanhée’s successive shows over the last few years.

Each new season seems to build on the one previous, bursting forth with new textures, colors, proportions, and focal points, but with visual cues such as necklines and silhouettes leaving a breadcrumb trail back, to remind us of where we have been while we keep moving forward. The vagaries of the fashion world – of the modern world entirely – require us to gallop.

Every new production season demands new ideas, shapes, and objects of desire; similarly, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who remembers life before social media who does not feel like our world is moving ever faster, like time has compressed and is indeed itself galloping, and we all just have to try to keep up.

For Resort 2026 Vanhée does not merely acknowledge that life now seems to be moving at a breakneck pace, she shows us how we might be better prepared for it: layers (mom would agree), pieces that may be reversed, transformed or worn more than one way (such as sleeves that may be added, removed, or even opened up to turn a cozy tunic dress into a cape) and pretty but also functional accessories (the better to create your own MacGyver-style transformations, like turning a Mini Kelly into a backpack or sling bag).

The clothes echoed some familiar shapes (harkening back to the Blade Runner vibes of last year) and color choices (including some very traditionally Hermès combinations such as orange-mustard-wine, which has probably been utilized on at least one product for the past, say, hundred years or so) while still remaining current.

The strong femininity of the past few seasons remained an emphasis, while the focus became increasingly on the feminine without being vulgar or obvious. Clothes were cut flatteringly, well-tailored, and generally appeared to actually be comfortable (except perhaps for the short shorts).

Varying sizes of Medor-themed belts, from thin and tiny to Collier de Chien, were worn to define a waist or keep a layer in place. Buckles and straps referenced the modularity of many of the pieces while also keeping the usual equestrian themes front-and-center. Cozy knit layers were worn around the waist and Hermès’ new headphones around the neck, further echoing the ideas of past while rushing towards the future .

Versatility for All

As for the bags, Hermès continued to emphasize that one size or style does not fit all. While in past seasons there may have only been a few bag styles shown, for Resort 2026 we were offered the whole panoply of shapes, from minis and clutches to maxis and totes, and everything was versatile: the Della Cavalleria style was handheld as a clutch or worn as a shoulder bag; the new Besace Attelée, which has a long adjustable strap, was also hand carried as a clutch or held by the strap; an enormous version of the Licol bag was folded and carried under the arm; and the Kelly was worn across the chest or waist as a mini, hand-carried in the 25cm size, and slung over the back of the shoulder in the 35cm and larger sizes (shown both with and without hardware).

The Bags of Hermès Resort 2026