Bohemian Hermes

Gypsies and luxury don’t seem like the likeliest of couples, but they teamed up brilliantly at the latest collection by Hermes, a tour de force by the label’s designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Staged Saturday on a Slavonic carpet and with Romany music gurgling out of the soundtrack, the show featured a marriage of haute gamme hippie and the unique ability of the Hermes atelier to create products of exceptional quality.

For fall 2008, Jean-Paul wants women to stride down the boulevards in cashmere wrap coats, belted with chunky silver buckles, or cruise a chilly antique market with posh peasant shearling coats and jackets in hues like leaves on a forest floor red and browns. Paired with some subtle patchwork skirts, sensational new Carpet Bagger boots and even Traveling People messenger satchels it made for a great collection of merchandise.

Gaultier’s vision of Hermes is very much uptown, but not uptight – one model even walked down the catwalk clutching a lit cigarette, which is possibly illegal under new French anti-smoking laws, but looked just right. Many designers tend to repeat themselves when they jump from their own brand to an evening job with another. Not Gaultier, who has brilliantly demarcated the operatic fantasies of his signature line from the polished cool of his collections for Hermes.

For evening, his best Hermes' look was a wonderful combo of smoking jacket, dressing gown and evening dress worn by uber walker Natasha Poly, a sleek and seductive black cashmere and satin lapel vision. The image was the epitome of understated chic, and wonderful clobber for a modern nomad.

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