After sales beyond all expectations and winning the MetaBirkin trial, the brand returns with a proud woman at Paris Fashion Week
Hermès: the MetaBirkins trial
What happens when someone copies the design of your bags to create a parallel business online? That’s what the Hermès brand faced in a lawsuit against the NFT sale of its iconic Birkin. $133,000 is the amount that Mason Rothschild, fictitious name of Sonny Estival, had to pay back to the luxury giant for inventing the MetaBirkin phenomenon.
The charges he was convicted of are trademark infringement and dilution and cybersquatting. Thus, there is a fine line between a desire for artistic expression in the digital and NFT field and the exploitation of an already existing and quite recognizable trademark to make a profit. Precisely this, according to the evidence, was Rothschild’s intention.
Although this refers to the MetaBirkin as an NFT art project that also aimed to understand the value placed by consumers on these tokens. In any case, the jury determined that the charges were true. While online products are still not well protected, Hermès’ registered trademarks led to victory for the brand. Can this be considered a case of online counterfeiting? To be sure, this is something that brands will have to consider, that of securing themselves legally from any applications in the online universe.
The investment behind Hermès products: Birkin or Kelly?
The tradition and exclusivity of the Hermès brand allowed profits to rise, in particular in the last quarter of last year, beyond any forecast made. Indeed, if analysts had determined about a seventeen percent increase in sales, by the end of 2022 the percentage recorded was a plus twenty-three percent.
Many luxury brands have been affected by the pandemic and the stop in force still in 2022 in some areas, as well as in the Asian zone for example. But Hermès also saw an increase in sales in the Asia-Pacific region. At the core of its business are leather goods and saddlery. In the latter case, notably, difficult availability and high prices are helping to make two of the brand’s spearheads, the Birkin and the Kelly, a real investment.
Indeed, future plans include building new production facilities to meet the growing demand for these products. At present, interested customers in addition to having to be loyal buyers of the brand have to wait within a waiting list for their chance to purchase one of the two bags. The scarcity of the product for sure increases the desire, but Hermès as a brand still evidently continues to be relevant in the value placed on it.
Fall Winter 2023 by Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski
In charge of the design of the Hermès women’s collection has been Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski since 2014. For this Fall Winter 2023 she has imagined a proud woman accompanied in attitude by the maison’s clothes. «Just as under the surface of trees there is a second skin, a bark that wraps them like a fabric, the materials, colors, and details weave a constant dialogue between them», the creative explained.
If colors play a relevant role in this collection, the mix of fabrics used gives it greater resonance. Inevitable is the reference to horse riding with shorts and hats with visors. Also playing a relevant role are outerwear from quilted versions to coats and duffle coats. Used is even leather material both for jackets and in suits with shorts and pants and in shaped dresses.
Simil furs are mixed with leather inserts and in knitwear the protagonists are high collars with ribbed and woven wool or cashmere. Standing out is layering in styling in particular in dark looks. Scarves are layered neatly or heavily on outerwear, and again down jackets cover part of skirts or a halter sweater is placed over a leather jumpsuit.
Color palette of the Hermès FW23
A color palette evoking a connection with nature characterizes Hermès’ ready-to-wear collection. Earth and trees seem to form a series of shades that make red and brown the protagonists. Dark, muted and muted versions open the fashion show and then encounter bright tones or lighter, brighter versions.
Also favoring this last color twist are fabrics, from bright and reflective to those with glitter inserts. Other color shades such as beige and yellow are then inserted. In the middle part of the show, a series of total black looks collide with subsequent uses of sequins that illuminate Fall Winter 2023.
Not only the brightness of the closure dresses contrasting with the suede of the boot elegantly conclude this naturalistic parade. The same palette is taken up by the accessories that play with the rendering of colors on the shiny leather and in the suede version.
The recurring features of Hermès’ FW23 collection
From classic colors to more saturated shades of the same, some clear elements are repeated in the structure of Fall Winter 2023. Starting right from those hallmarks of the brand such as the shorts inspired by the equestrian world and declined in different lengths, above and below the knee.
The tall suede boot is another motif that returns along with the great Hermés classics such as the Birkin bag and belts revisited and also placed on jackets and coats. The longuette is the pattern favored above all for both skirts and dress hemlines.
In the former case a series of knit versions are repurposed in the most diverse looks. While the protagonist at the level of fabric work is the plissé, which is also present in both long skirts and dresses. In particular, dresses characterized by this workmanship are declined with respect to the peplum model.
