Hermès Spring/Summer 2023, Part II: Leather Colors and Seasonal Scarves

In Part I of this article, I laid out the Hermès leather colors for this season: new and returning colors that are either being promoted by Hermès for Spring-Summer 2023 or have actually been offered for sale so far this season. In Part II, I coordinate the scarves according to their color groups with the available leather colors to give you a visual reference and some ideas for what will match or coordinate well.

This season has been a bit more…complicated for several reasons. First, additional colors seemed to become newly available weeks after the start of the season;  and second, leather shipments, while definitely improved, are still not quite up to speed. Therefore, I have updated the Spring-Summer 2023 leather chart to advise you of new additions to the leather color range before we start on the scarves.

The Updated Color Chart for Spring Summer 2023:

Remember, the leather stated in the swatch refers only to the leather in the swatch, not the leather this color is produced in this season.

Added leather colors include:

• Regular Leathers: Rose Pourpre, Rouge Grenat, Orange and Celeste
• Lizard: Vert Cypres
• Ostrich: Bubblegum Pink, Vert Verone, Violine
• Alligator/Crocodile: Beton,  Rose Pourpre,  Vert d’Eau,  Vert Fonce, Malachite and Bleu Encre

Items to note: the Orange leather color for Spring-Summer 2023 does appear to be different (perhaps a bit softer) than in prior seasons, which is why the swatch says “SS23”. Additionally, I changed the swatches for both Orange Minium and Limoncello after having seen them in person; Orange Minium was notably brighter in the Clemence bag that I saw in person, compared to than color I had seen in photos and swatches. Those swatches in this chart are from my photos.

These few additions do round out the color options nicely for the season, and they also make some of the scarf colorways make a bit more sense; in particular, there are a lot of scarves that will match Rose Poupre, and before I was certain that this color was back, I was truly perplexed as to why there were many scarves prominently featuring a cyclamen color.

Now, on to the scarves.

Color Families for Spring Summer 2023

Prior to a few years ago, it was much harder to group scarves by color family, as this practice is fairly recent. Interestingly, Hermès does not seem to be promoting color families this season, and with good reason; it would seem that producing multiple different designs in the same colors can have at least a minor negative impact on the bottom line, as many customers may not need or want multiple scarves with the same exact colors.

There has also been a certain amount of confusion regarding the color families. The names of the families themselves may or may not appear immediately relevant to that particular colorway and sometimes seem arbitrary, and often there is a wide range of variation within each family so that a clear set of rules sometimes seems elusive.

It is surprising to see that there are still two letters (representing the name of a Color Family) starting each colorway line on the store tag, but am relieved that this is being ignored on the website (the first season they were used, the Mediterrannee Color Family was abbreviated to ME, and the Hermès website listed every ME scarf as featuring the color Menthe, despite the fact that those scarves had no green in them whatsoever).

Additionally, while there have definitely been outliers every season – scarves that don’t seem to belong to any one particular family, there seems to be even more variety this season. That is, there are definitely Color Families, but they seem to have more variations within that color range, and there are more outliers, or even what I would call smaller color groups, where there are just a few scarves with the same colors.

With that said, here are some of these Color Families and groups, which have been organized purely by analyzing the colors of the scarves. This is not an attempt to confirm any official Hermès Color Family but merely to serve a similar purpose. Coordinating scarves with your accessories or wardrobe can be tricky; not every blue bag is instantly versatile, as I have personally discovered. Although to the eye, certain colors in a scarf can appear to match more than one leather color (and honestly, if you’re wearing a shawl in a dimly-lit restaurant, no one will even be able to see whether it matches your Gold/Fauve/Caramel/Sable bag), undertones can make a huge difference in direct light, or if you are particular about matching.

Pinks

To begin with (of course!), there are several variations of pink scarves this season:

• A pastel version (think Mauve Sylvestre) with mint green and light blue with orange and yellow
  • Suggested matches: Mauve Sylvestre, Limoncello, Vert Comics, Bleu Glacier, Orange Minium, Violine, Trench, Gris Neve
• A light pink colorway with navy, black, and touches of red; and
  • Suggested: Bleu Royal, Nata, Rouge Venetien, Mauve Sylvestre, Chai, Vermillion, Vert d’Eau, Bleu Frida
• A bolder shade (like Rose Ete) with turquoise and green.
  • Vert Comics, New White, Bleu France, Rose Ete, Feu, Bleu Encre, Nor, Jaune de Naples.

(Scroll through for more photos)

Peaches

There is a peach/coral vibe on some designs this season, including

• A peachy-pink (again, like Rose Ete), but this time with yellows, including orange-yellows and green-yellows and touches of blue and red; and
  • Celeste, Lime, Vert Jade, Mauve Pale, Orange, Sable, Beton, Etain
• A lighter peach with periwinkle, white, black, and light yellow.
  • Bleu Royal, Kraft, Vermillion, Beton, Trench, Bleu Indigo, Mauve Pale, Vert Fizz

Reds

The red scarves include:

• A bright tomato-red colorway with a coral-pink, light blues, pale yellow, and tan; and
  • Terre Cuite, Feu, Bleu Izmir, Vert Comics, Gold, Roge Venetien, Bleu Lin, Nata
• A softer colorway with brighter pinks, dark green, light and medium blues, and soft browns.
  • Bleu Pale, Framboise, Vert Fonce, Limoncello, Beige de Weimar, Rose Pop, Vert Cypres, Rubis

Orange-Yellows

It is difficult to distinguish between these graduated shades of orange and yellow, and while there is some overlap, each of these is distinctive:

• A bright orange colorway featuring both pale and dark neutrals with little touches of blue, pale yellow, and red;
  • Bleu Lin, Beton, Orange, Etoupe, Jaune de Naples, Mushroom, Noir, Rouge H
• A yellow-orange with gold, medium browns, soft dark red and bits of light pink;
  • Caramel, Rouge Sellier, Rouge Piment, Gris Meyer, Biscuit, Craie, Mauve Sylvestre
• A similar yellow-orange with dominant shades of light and mint green and blue; and
  • Orange, Vert Jade, Gris Perle, Vert Comics, Caramel, Vert Cypres, Sable, Bleu de Prusse
• A bright yellow colorway with orange, neutrals, and usually medium blue and/or green.
  • Jaune de Naples, Etoupe, Kraft, Vert Cypres, Orange Minium, Terre Cuite, Bleu France, Trench

Greens

There are at least three colorways for green, including:

• A bold colorway with a white background, usually featuring green, blue and red with tan, yellow and black;
  • Malachite, Bleu Saphir, Jaune de Naples, Rouge Piment, Kraft, Rose Pourpre, Vert Fizz, Aubergine
• A darker version with similar but softer shades and cream or vanilla instead of white; and
  • Vert Bosphore, Gris Neve, Bleu Izmir, Vert Rousseau, Bleu Indigo, Gold, Mushroom, Celeste
• A blue-green colorway with light blue, yellow and touches of pink and red or orange.
  • Vert Jade, Bleu Lin, Gris Perle, Limoncello, Orange Minium, New White, Vert Amande, Rose Ete

Blues

The varieties for the blue scarves are more distinctive than some of the other colors. Three of the blue colorways are:

• Medium and Gray-Blues with soft pink, navy, pale yellow, gray and beige;
  • Bleu Izmir, Sable, Vert de Gris, Rouge Sellier, Rose Pourpre, Bougainvillier, Beton, Kraft
• Light, medium and dark blue with golden yellow, taupe, light pink and/or red; and
  • Caban, Caramel, Fauve, Vert Bosphore, Rose Ete, Beton, Etoupe, Bleu de Prusse
• A colorway of various shades of blue.
  • Bleu de Prusse, Gris Neve, Caban, Vert Cypres, Bleu Encre, Bleu Pale, Nata, Bleu Izmir

Cyclamen

This was the colorway that had me confused until I discovered that Rose Pourpre was available this season (I initially hoped that they would bring back Violette/Violet, to coordinate with the release of Hermès new perfume Violette Volynka, but unfortunately that was not to be this season). The distinction between these two versions are:

• Cyclamen with bold blue, red, yellow and green with gold and pale pink; and
  • Rose Pourpre, Bleu France, Chai, Malachite, Terre Cuite, Vermillion, Vert d’Eau, Bleu Lin
• Cyclamen with bold blue and yellow, but with often with also a brighter pink and very little if any red and pale green instead of bold.
  • Framboise, Lime, Bougainvillier, Blue Nuit, Rose Pourpre, Biscuit, Violine, Celeste

Primary Colors

Finally, there is a series of primary color scarves featuring black and/or very dark blue:

• A black or black-and-white background with dominant red and bits of light blue, yellow, gold and often pink;
  • Beton, Graphite, Feu, Celeste, Mauve Pale, Rouge H, Craie, Rose Texas
• Turquoise with black and primary colors; and
  • Bleu Frida, Rose Mexico, Menthe, Bleu Nuit, Rouge Grenat, Bleu Glacier, Rose Shocking
• Dark Blue with red, yellow, green, and light pink.
  • Bleu Saphir, Rouge Piment, Mauve Pale, Gris Perle, Vermillion, Noir, Limincello, Bleu Pale.