Hermes Shoes

The lore of Hermes footwear has always been secondary to that of its bags handbags (and perhaps tertiary, behind both bags and scarves), but cold-weather collections like Hermes Fall 2011 give the shoes a chance to shine because of the increased leather real estate that a boot provides over, say, a sandal. Leather is always the star with this brand, and the more of it can be incorporated, the happier Hermes lovers are.

Which is the good news about Christophe Lemaire’s first collection for Hermes: There were plenty of boots. The bad news is that some of them were attached to leather pants to create what seemed to be extremely expensive leather waders, which is not a good look, I don’t care who designed it. Most of the non-pants boots are beautiful and totally wearable, though, so try to focus on those and maybe the waders will disappear into a dark Hermes archive somewhere. One can only hope.

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I have a new goal in life: I want to own a pair of Hermes riding boots before I die. Preferably the cream leather boots featured at the Hermes Spring 2011 runway show – how utterly divine are they? I don’t even want to think about what a nightmare they would be to keep clean, or how heartbroken I would be when they inevitably became smudged. How about if I just wear them inside my house?

Other than those boots, Jean Paul Gaultier did what he always tends to do with Hermes footwear: he made shoes that are reasonable, attractive and relatively gimmick-free. The thick-strapped sandals and beautifully detailed leather wedges should sell well among the brand’s normal customers, and I’m sure that I won’t be the only one having such an effusive reaction to the collection’s boots.

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