Sense and sensuality

For Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, artistic director of Hermès’s women’s ready-to-wear, motherhood has only emphasised the values that she holds dear. She talks to Priyanka Khanna about generational legacy, the tactility of fashion and what keeps her creatively fuelled during this time of crisis

- Priyanka Khanna

Just like every other aspect of our daily lives these days—workouts, school, even baby showers—this interview with Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, artistic director of Hermès’s women’s ready-to-wear was conducted over Zoom. On a seemingly sunny Paris morning, a few days after her spring/summer 2021 showing at the Tennis Club de Paris, she spoke to me from her home, where she was already brainstorming the spring/summer 2022 collection. A lockdown in the city of lights was imminent again, thanks to a fierce second wave of COVID-19, and Vanhee-Cybulski was grappling with what it meant for her as a creative and as a mother, along with what it would entail for the women she dresses.

Priyanka Khanna: How are you? How have the last few months been?

Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski: The general feeling is...I’m good. [The last few months have been] Exciting, challenging, always changing.

PK: Are you working at home or at the studio?

NVC: We have assimilated to new protocols. I have a few days at home so that I can recollect myself and my ideas for spring/summer 2022. We were under lockdown for six weeks earlier in the year. When I went back to the studio, I was motivated to meet my peers again and excited to see how we would reconfigure the line that we had presented in October.

Has it changed the way I work? I don’t think so. I’ve always been thorough. When I have an idea, I stick to it, develop it, deepen it and take it further. So I haven’t revolutionised the way I work, but we have had to integrate more technology. We have collaborators from many countries, so we have to be ingenious and use new ways of sharing the process.