65 MINUTES WITH...Nadège Vanhée

The intentionally little-known designer has figured out the most important part of her job: how to cater to the Hermès customer.

- CHANTAL FERNANDEZ

ON A RECENT Wednesday morning, in a brightly lit photo studio in Chelsea, Nadège Vanhée is standing in front of a rack of clothing eating a croissant and catching the crumbs with an Hermès saucer perched under her chin. "My jet-lag moment," she says in a thick French accent. Behind us, the model Jill Kortleve, wearing a black duffle coat over leather leggings, stands at the end of a short runway. Stylist Jodie Barnes looks on from a nearby cluster of sofas. Vanhée strolls over to them. "Can you walk?" she asks, and Kortleve starts to strut. Less than 48 hours to showtime.

After ten years as Hermès's artistic director of women's ready-to-wear, Vanhée is "watching the mayonnaise coming up,” as she puts it, as years of work emulsify into critical and commercial success. Recently, she’s been described as “quietly avant-garde” and “understatedly non-conformist.” But perhaps most important, she’s managed to successfully appeal to the type of ultrawealthy Hermès shopper who’s interested in buying more from the French brand than just Birkins and silk scarves. Vanhée’s supple leather jackets and cashmere trousers have helped Hermès push through the global luxury slowdown that is dogging most of its competitors. Ready-to-wear and fashion accessories, some of which fall under her domain, are now the fastest-growing parts of the business. Which is part of the reason Hermès decided to put an extra runway show on its calendar this year— the one Vanhée is preparing for when we meet. For this, the brand turned a pier warehouse into an Hermès-ified vision of downtown New York, where Leigh Lezark and Natasha Lyonne ate plates of Carbone pasta, Caroline Polacheck performed on a cabaret stage in full red-leather Hermès, and Honey Dijon DJ’d a set. Still: Events like these are conceived less for the young people on the dance floor than for the VIP clients, some of whom Hermès flew in for the event, favorite Kellys in hand.