So now that Christophe Lemaire, a French designer with no great cachet in terms of widespread international name-recognition, has joined the house to replace the hijinks instituted for several years by Jean Paul Gaultier, the audience was curious to see if and how the strategy had changed. The outcome, viewed in a show held in the new Hermѐs store on the Rue de Sevres, was puzzling. Lemaire, who has his own collection which veers toward the minimal-Asian tendency of Western design, staged a debut which, with its big shouldered robes, leather caps, and pants fused into boots (Bants? Poots?), not to mention the fact that one model was carrying an eagle on her arm (alive) and another had a bow and quiver slung about her person, almost appeared to be channeling the spirit of Claude Montana, eighties-style.
