Fall 2010: Hermès and Gareth Pugh

Meticulous tailoring seemed to be the point of the Hermès collection by Jean Paul Gaultier. I like it very much for showing the best workmanship in the lushest of materials — croco, leather, cashmere: Can you want anything more from the house that defines high luxury?
Mr Gaultier used the The Avengers as a starting point for this collection, but he could just as well have done without it, because the masculine Savile Row tailoring (such glossily beautiful hats and bags and the furled umbrellas!) effectively demonstrated classic Hermès values on their own, with no concessions to trendiness.An almost all-leather collection, it nonetheless felt brisk, and not leaden (the polished workmanship elevates and excites) despite showing more than 50 looks, and mostly with outerwear. It was slyly sexy, and a very adult outing.If you don't know what I mean by 'adult', it would be illuminating to compare Mr Gaultier’s show with Gareth Pugh’s, which similarly featured almost-all leather outfits. But without any finesse or fit, or feeling for luxury, Mr Pugh’s suits of leather looked as stiff as vinyl. I wonder at the fashion writers and bloggers who rave at this collection: Do they not see what is before their eyes? I find it frankly banal and childish, and if they fitted thus-awkwardly on models, is there hope for mere mortals? This young designer wanted to convey strength, but succeeded only in heavy, dour and forbiddingly dreary Darth Vader coat-dresses and pants-suits glazed like bus seats. This is the ‘minimalism/futurism’ of a banal computer game, the antithesis of adult clothes.