FALL 2020 READY-TO-WEAR HERVÉ LÉGER
February 10, 2020
Did Hervé Léger get work done? I mean this in the nicest way possible, because Hervé Léger is looking good. Christian Juul Nielsen, who took the helm as creative director in September 2018, has been injecting his vision into the label over several seasons now, digging deep into the archives, applying the handiwork skills that he learned at Dior under John Galliano, and revamping the brand. He’s called in the big guns too: Kate Young styled the collection. Yes, there are the tried-and-true crystal-slathered bandage dresses that die-hard customers of the house will love and that will always sell, but even those have been slightly tweaked to feel lighter and less cumbersome. In other words, Nielsen has given the label a full facelift.
The designs for the fall 2020 collection have the power to give Léger a much-needed cool factor. It gets exhausting to look at the same bandage dress again and again, so Nielsen has been rethinking how to use the cinch-your-body-in technique. One example was a cool cross-hatch skirt that came in a camel hue with little bandage pieces hanging off the hem. (He said it reminded him of his parents’ chairs in Denmark.) Another stellar way Nielsen used bandage dressing was by fusing a hot pink loose-fitting knit sweater to a bandage miniskirt. The baggy-tight silhouettes were reminiscent of the ’90s supermodel era when those Amazonian figures would step out in a sweatshirt with a skintight skirt.
A hot ticket item will be a black coat made out of the bandage material. The piece of outerwear was impeccably tailored. Best of all, it could be balled up into a suitcase, taken to wherever-land for however long, and still come out wrinkle-free. It would look great on a woman wearing one of those itty-bitty bedazzled bandage dresses—or really anyone.
