In Fashion’s Hype-Driven Era, Hermès Is Doing Its Own Thing

Shanghai is a city that exists on fast forward. Click between images of its Pudong financial district in the late 80s and the 21st century, and the change is jaw-dropping – in a couple of decades, a seemingly quiet harbour has been transformed into a futuristic vista staggered with skyscrapers. Visit today, and you’ll find a place where cars fly along Ballardian super highways, neon-lit towers reaching into the clouds display constantly revolving, technicolour advertisements, and everywhere you look, construction workers are flattening buildings to erect shining new ones. The change was particularly striking for Hermès’ artistic director of menswear, Véronique Nichanian, who last week touched down in the city with one of her Men’s Universe events – travelling fashion shows which bring the world of the storied Paris-based house around the globe. Taking place in the sci-fi-esque China State Shipbuilding Corporation Pavilion on the city’s Huangpu river, the ‘Fast Forward’-themed evening included a fashion show of her SS18 collection (modelled on some local personalities alongside an international cast); a games room boasting old-school arcade machines; custom Hermès VR headsets; a bar surrounded by spacesuits, and a laboratory full of test tubes and precisely placed product. Read more at Dazed.