Hermès Women’s Spring-Summer 2025 Channels Effortless Elegance

Text: Jesse Scott 

Quiet luxury is having a moment across the fashion industry.  Yet long before its advent as a buzzword - indeed over 150 years before the show Succession was a gleam in creator Jesse Armstrong’s eye - Hermès was setting the gold standard for this style. Trends come and trends go, and in the social media age, fashion is undergoing seismic shifts more rapidly than ever before. But Hermès remains perhaps the best proof of the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” unwavering in a commitment to impeccable craftsmanship and understated refinement that is often aspired to but never truly replicated. 

The Women’s Spring-Summer 2025 collection was no exception. Amidst the waves of pastels and avant-garde technical materials that have alternately taken over the runways this season, Hermès stayed faithful to its DNA with a brilliant collection that should serve as the foundational wardrobe for anyone embracing quiet luxury in the new season. A swoon-worthy color palette dominated by shades of beige, camel, and nutmeg, with a delightful pop of rose denim to interject some flirtatious summer fun, set the tone for a timeless collection with modern sensibility. Creative director Nadège Vanhée, who recently celebrated the successful culmination of her first decade of the brand, has historically approached her collections with the discipline of a Renaissance portraitist and the precision of a scientist. 

Every detail, or lack thereof, is carefully chosen to interpret the brand’s rich heritage for a new generation of clients. In a recent interview, Vanhée explained that she looked to Hermès’ silhouettes from a century ago, particularly from female designers such as Lola Prusac, for inspiration in crafting her designs. Vanhée creates classic pieces that blend aristocratic attitude with profound humility, for powerful women assured of both themselves and their sartorial taste.  She’s one of the most sure-handed designers in the industry today, leveraging Hermes’ unmatched artisanship to weave concise narratives through effortlessly elegant collections.

As Vanhée’s latest offering moved down the runway, it was the small details such as pocket placement, asymmetrical styling of jackets, and discerningly chosen belts that stood out. Among the highlights were skirts that zipped up one leg, along with partially sheer trousers that conversed with the current fashion flashpoint in an understated and typically Hermès way.

Hermès used its Objets presentation and re-see to debut one of its most memorable collections of bags in recent seasons. Horsehair fringe starred, a tribute to the brand’s rich equestrian roots. The Cabas Corricolo, inspired by a horse’s mane, possessed an easy grace despite its meticulous construction. Meanwhile, the generously sized Cabas Trassage combined calfskin and horsehair in a delicately woven piece that synthesized rustic charm with a sophisticated silhouette. 

Hermès moved in a playful direction with its Kelly and Birkin models this season. The Mini Kelly appeared in a luxurious red with a joyfully layered fringe while the Birkin a l’envers inverted our expectations by displaying beloved features typically found on the inside of a Birkin, for example a back pouch-style pocket, on its exterior. The Cargo Birkin was presented in Japanese denim, rounding out an extensive series of bags representative of Hermès’ exceptional ability to balance tradition with innovation.

From laser-cut leather to semi-sheer knits, and even soundtrack to set design (models wove through delicate paper scaffolding in a tan-dominated color palette), Hermès’ Spring-Summer 2025 show struck all the right chords. Fatally cool in a casual manner that belied the technical precision of the collection, it offered a complete compendium of easy, effortless quiet luxury from the brand that still does it best.