According to Hermes’ previous Women Fall collections, the color presentation keeps changing in a stable process and safe situation. Black is the must in color presentation in each collection. However, its using proportion has been reducing. In 07 Fall collection, two third of the collection was black in color. Next year, black dominates half of the Fall collection. In fact, not only the Fall collections, black also is a must in Spring collections. But, its dominating proportion is shared by white. Hermes 09 Spring collection had been made public recently; we can see that black and white share two firth of the collection only. Therefore, using of black in future Fall collection will be continuously fewer, but still will be a must. In my collection, black is used in a one third proportion in order to keep this tradition.Following black, earth tone is a symbolic color in Hermes’ collections, both Spring and Fall. It is a must in every collection, but its value keeps changing from low to high. In 07 Fall collection, shaded and dark brown were everywhere. However, in 08 Fall collection, there is a great change in value and chroma of earth tone. Deep brown is nearly disappeared, and is being replaced by brown-orange, red-brown, and light brown. Besides, apricot, the “Spring dominator of color”, begins to invade in Fall collection with low value. In fact, the proportion of earth tone is increasing in which begins to take the dominating place of black in Fall collections. As in 08 Fall collection, earth tone share half of the collection. Therefore, using of earth tone with high value in future Fall collection will be continuously more. In my collection, earth tone dominates half of it. I choose brown-orange and red-brown as their value is suitably high enough to make this collection fresh. Moreover, normal brown is also used in a little proportion; on the shoes, in order to keep a balance. As I mentioned before, apricot is chosen at small proportion. Since, it is a Spring color according to Hermes’ tradition, it should not be too much in a Fall collection. Although it will be used with a high possibility in the future, it can be a decorative color only in Fall collection.
Apart from earth tone, two other colors always appear flashy: olive and steelblue. They seldom appear together in Fall collections, but separately. However, we can find them in 09 Spring collection. In fact, they will be included in the future Fall collection together. Firstly, their value is not too high, which is suitable to Hermes’ tradition of Fall collection. Secondly, Hermes’ Fall collection begins to be dominated by earth tone instead of black. Earth tone, olive and steelblue are natural colors. Adding them in the collection will be an inevitable trend which can be shown in 09 Spring collection. Therefore, I put olive and steelblue in my collection: one being a decorative color, another is a main color. In fact, their proportion in my collection is quite large, as I think Hermes will not satisfy with full of one tone in one collection. In Hermes’ website, products with steelblue are displayed on the first page of some of the categories. It shows that Hermes value steelblue so much.
Grey can be easily found in Hermes’ collections. Its proportion in Fall collection is larger than Spring one. As Hermes’ Fall collection keeps changing from low value to high value, I choose light grey in my collection. However, it disappears in 09 Spring collection. Therefore, I reduce its proportion in my collection as a decorative color.
Last but not least, I put violet in my collection will be the traditional surprise of Hermes. There is always a special color used in each collection. For instant, 07 Fall collection has a garment in blue with high chroma, while 08 Fall collection has a garment in olive. In fact, we can not find violet in Hermes’ previous collections, even the latest 09 Spring collection. It is very suitable to be the new color used in future Fall collection. The violet I chose has low value, which follows the tradition of Hermes in Fall collection. Besides, using violet is a world trend. Hermes is an international fashion brand; although it is a traditional brand, it has been kept changing recently. Therefore, using violet is not a strange surprise in future Fall collection.
Jean-Paul Gaultier (born April 24, 1952, in Arcueil, Val-de-Marne) ,a French fashion designer and past television presenter, has been Hermès creative director since 2003.
