It’s All “Hot Paris Summer” for Hermès SS26
It is hot in Paris. Like, swelteringly hot. Regular attendees know that the Hermès show, staged for the last few years at Palais d’Iéna, is among the hottest, due to the time of day and lack of both shade on the building and air conditioning. “I’m going to wait outside for as long as I can,” one attendee smartly decided. It felt fitting, then, that, once inside, guests were treated to a Spring-Summer 2026 Hermès collection that artistic director and designer Véronique Nichanian had dreamt up with a sweltering summer in the city in mind.
Nichanian has a habit of zagging when others zig and, at a time when seemingly everybody offered up shorts on the runway, Hermès, Spring-Summer 2026 collection was curiously bereft of any. Instead, to tackle the heat, Nichanian proposed light, airy materials and loose cuts that exuded ease and freedom and looked as if perpetually blown by a summer breeze.
The colour palette was a nod to the kind of man that inhabits the Hermès universe under Nichanian: a worldly city-dweller who is crafty, creative, and tapped in, albeit in an unassuming kind of way. Shades were drawn from the worlds of cuisine and crafts with the likes of coffee, caramel, mint, ice cube, burgundy and vanilla mixed putty, craft silex and ficelle, perfect for the man who knows the small plates restaurant in town, but can also tell you who makes the actual plates.
The use and naming of colours speaks to Hermès’ unique approach to beauty. Take, for example, mint green, which typically conjures up images of the light green (with a hint of turquoise) shade you’ll find in a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Nichanian’s is deep, rich and bright at the same time — the colour of actual mint leaves — applied to Losanges neckerchiefs, linen shirts, technical jackets and chunky sleeveless knits. It was a refreshing flash of colour, much the same way a mint-infused juice offers the perfect salve on a hot summer day.
By my estimation, Nichanian is menswear’s best designer. Not only because she actually knows what colour mint ought to be, but because she possesses a preternatural ability to make things work, often in unexpected ways. For example, I have always found leather to be a curious choice for warm weather collections — except, of course, when considering the fact that attention must be paid to the Southern hemisphere. Yet, by the time I left the Hermès offices the day after the show, I wanted to trade in my breathable shorts for Nichanian’s Spring-Summer 2026 leather pants. The pants — alongside shirts, jackets and sleeveless vests — were painstakingly constructed from laser-cut strips of leather which had been woven into intricate latticework that was light and airy. Somehow, leather pants now seem like the best option to tackle a Parisian heat wave. Though it must be said that the silk tank tops, shantung jackets, crisp wool suits and flowing, pleated trousers also seemed perfect for the heat.
The most stylish people usually dress for themselves — they don’t care to impress anybody else. After more than three decades at the helm of the Hermès men’s universe, Nichanian doesn’t have anybody left to impress, either. It affords her a freedom that she transmits to the clothes, which look lived in and real, despite being veritable works of art, owing to the craftsmanship that goes into them. On the one hand there are jackets which are intricately embroidered with the saddle-stitching that first made Hermès famous in the equestrian world, yet there’s an omnipresent slouchiness to this collection, as if shaped by years of wear.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Hermès Men’s Spring-Summer 2026
Photo by Filippo Fior, courtesy of Hermès.
Really, the greatest compliment one can pay this collection is that, after two sweltering weeks of looking at clothes, the only things I want to wear next summer are airy leather pants and a mint green linen shirt–that would’ve made even this heat bearable.
Feature photo by Bruno Staub, courtesy of Hermès.
