While Covid-19 may have changed fashion events, it has not stopped them, as Hermes proved on July 5 with its low-key menswear presentation beamed live from Paris.
Replacing the standard runway show, a format that is impossible with current social distancing rules, the storied French house opted to showcase 18 looks for spring / summer 2021 in a live performance. Called Hors Champs (meaning behind the scenes), the presentation was a collaboration between Veronique Nichanian, artistic director of Hermes menswear, and Cyril Teste, theatre director and filmmaker.
We don't want to create a fashion show or an absolutely finite performance. We want it to be an event.
Speaking ahead of the event, Teste said: "We don't want to create a fashion show or an absolutely finite performance. We want it to be an event: the process of creation experienced; a live sculpture, as it were. I hope that our playful approach freed our endeavour from a 'making of' vibe that was never our intention. The idea was rather to film what was off-camera."
The audience was transported backstage during the shooting of the company's look book, and given rare insight in to an event that people never normally see. As the camera moved through the airy space, we saw various characters drift past. The performance captured models in their downtime, glued to their phones and waiting to be summoned; there was the last-minute tweaking of outfits, done by Nichanian herself; the crew moving around in headsets; and racks of clothing and accessories.
Hermes is not – and never has been – a brand that chases trends. In fact, it barely acknowledges seasons, presenting instead seasonless, little-bit-of everything collections that we all wished we owned, and that are made to be worn for years.
As a house, it is about supreme quality, expensive finishings and beautiful materials. The quiet setting that Teste created perfectly suited the brand's mantra. Relaxed looks fashioned from deerskin, technical canvas, cashmere, silk, metis goat skin, cotton poplin and linen panned past, in the form of layered micro-collared shirts under lightweight blouson jackets, themselves cut from shirting. Light knits the colour of putty were worn half tucked into single pleat-fronted trousers, cut wide in the leg and stopping at the ankle. It was all signature Nichanian – effortless, understated elegance.
Lasting eight minutes, the event was essentially a single, continuous cut moving around the space, hinting at some clothes and more closely examining others. One lovely moment saw a model pausing to flip up his jacket collar, only to pull his phone from a hidden pocket within the lapel itself.
The frantic aspect of fashion does not interest me in the slightest.
The colours, too, were classic Nichanian – stone, Mediterranean blue, gravel, putty and one jolt of shocking, wonderful chartreuse.
"My work has always focused on form, material and colour," she explains. "The frantic aspect of fashion does not interest me in the slightest. Here at Hermes, we use an equestrian phrase that seems particularly apt in this day and age: 'Straight ahead, calm and poised.'"
Created during the strict French quarantine, this collection was much smaller than Nichanian’s usual offerings. “We were cut off from our usual means of production,” she explains. “I also selected 18 silhouettes where I normally select around 40, partly due to the nature of the performance. I said to Cyril: 'Here is my collection, do with it what you will.' I brought him my work, he did his work, and together we created this moment.
“Creativity feeds on the unexpected. That moment backstage before the show, the boys biding their time, some goofing, others in thrall to their phones, models who are not actors, surrounded by photographers: these classic off-camera moments of a show, the glimpses one usually never gets, are precisely what will for once be visible to all.”
As a collection, it carried all the hallmarks of Hermes and Nichanian, steeped in the nonchalance that both do so well. As an event, it was a creative new approach that perfectly suited the house.
"In lieu of an audience, spectators will see the people on set, such as my team and the Hermes studio team," Teste explains. "Spectators will be seeing something incontrovertibly authentic."
India squads
T20: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur
Test: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant
Predictions
Predicted winners for final round of games before play-offs:
- Friday: Delhi v Chennai - Chennai
- Saturday: Rajasthan v Bangalore - Bangalore
- Saturday: Hyderabad v Kolkata - Hyderabad
- Sunday: Delhi v Mumbai - Mumbai
- Sunday - Chennai v Punjab - Chennai
Final top-four (who will make play-offs): Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
Tuesday (UAE kick-off times)
Leicester City v Brighton (9pm)
Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United (11.15pm)
Wednesday
Manchester United v Sheffield United (9pm)
Newcastle United v Aston Villa (9pm)
Norwich City v Everton (9pm)
Wolves v Bournemouth (9pm)
Liverpool v Crystal Palace (11.15pm)
Thursday
Burnley v Watford (9pm)
Southampton v Arsenal (9pm)
Chelsea v Manchester City (11.15pm)
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
RESULTS
5pm: Watha Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
Winner: Dalil De Carrere, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Mohamed Daggash (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Miracle Maker, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Pharitz Al Denari, Bernardo Pinheiro, Mahmood Hussain
6.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Oss, Jesus Rosales, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: ES Nahawand, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: AF Almajhaz, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, Khalifa Al Neyadi
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: AF Lewaa, Bernardo Pinheiro, Qaiss Aboud.
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: seven-speed PDK dual clutch automatic
Power: 375bhp
Torque: 520Nm
Price: Dh332,800
On sale: now
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
Company%20profile
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