At Hermès, Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski Reimagines the Dress in Los Angeles

Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski used Hermès‘ latest Chapter Two presentation to introduce a softer expression of the house, centering the second act of the women’s fall 2026 collection around a category not always associated with the French luxury brand: the dress.

Presented Thursday evening in a structure that took a month to build in Bel Air, the residential neighborhood in the Westside of Los Angeles, the show marked the third installment of the format the artistic director of women’s ready-to-wear launched in New York in 2024 and continued in Shanghai in 2025. As a continuation of the collection first shown in Paris, the traveling presentations allow Vanhee-Cybulski to expand a narrative through the spirit of a specific city.

The event was further proof of the central importance of the U.S. market to a luxury sector transforming in the face of a slowdown. The Hermès show followed ones last month by Dior in Beverly Hills and Gucci and Louis Vuitton in New York and preceded Zegna’s spring 2027 runway show in L.A. Friday night.

In L.A., Vanhee-Cybulski introduced a series of dresses that explored femininity, transformation and movement. While the Paris show was rooted in outdoor exploration and Hermès’ equestrian heritage, the Bel Air chapter drew inspiration from dance, performance and the ease of California.

At the heart, it was an exploration of the dress through the Carré; Vanhee-Cybulski reimagined the house’s signature scarf as fluid, body-conscious silhouettes that balanced movement and structure.

“The dresses are new,” Vanhee-Cybulski said in an interview ahead of the show. “I think it’s not necessarily something associated with Hermès, and the idea was that the Carré can transform into a dress — a dress that is draped around the body and then becomes constructed.”

The collection introduced a strong ballet narrative, layering outerwear over performance-inspired silhouettes.

“It’s the idea of a dancer coming out of a rehearsal, and she just put on a jacket, and she just left her studio,” said Vanhee-Cybulski, repeatedly referencing the image of a dancer on stage and off-duty.

The influence informed supple leather parkas, wrap-effect dresses and sculptural bustier silhouettes, inspired by ballet slippers and pointe shoes.

“Ballet was a very strong theme,” she said. “Ballet is about grace, beauty and the expertise of the gesture. The craftsmanship of a craftsman and the skill of a dancer — I think it was really interesting to cross-reference those ideas and create a new formula.”

The looks translated the shape and tension of ballet footwear into eveningwear, while duchesse satin emerged as a defining fabric.

“It’s not necessarily something you think for Hermès, but it was really important to have in the work,” Vanhee-Cybulski said of the material.

While leather — the brand’s expertise — naturally remained central to the collection, appearing in sculpted outerwear and buttery coats, Vanhee-Cybulski also explored velvet silk dresses, a knitwear jumpsuit embellished with sequins and beads, as well as a touch of the American West in a leather look inspired by cowboy culture — a nod to California’s cultural mythology.

“It’s this translation from reality to dream,” she said.

The color palette reflected Vanhee-Cybulski’s vision of L.A., including butter yellow, rich red and deep black. A yellow leather coat paired with a pink bag nodded to California’s sun-soaked optimism, she said, while a red satin look offered a feminine take on the tuxedo. Shimmering evening silhouettes, meanwhile, captured the city’s skyline after dark.

Vanhee-Cybulski drew on memories accumulated over years of visits to L.A., from afternoons spent in diners and friends’ apartments to rides in vintage cars, she said.

“I’ve been coming here many times,” she said. “There were all these sorts of ideas that collided in my brain.”

When she lands in L.A., the designer enjoys hiking, visiting galleries and heading to the ocean, she said. The city has also become a place of creative research and community, where she looks for inspiration in the broader cultural landscape.

“L.A. is a place where you create yourself, you create a new identity, you create a new story,” she said. “I thought it was quite a very interesting land to create this collection.”