​Véronique Nichanian, the longest-running creative director of a significant fashion house, is leaving Hermès, the Paris-based house confirmed on Thursday.
 

In a major surprise, Nichanian has decided to bring down the curtains on her 37-year tenure at Hermès. Her final runway show for Hermès will take place next January, 2026, in Paris, during the next menswear season.
 
Nichanian joined Hermès back in 1988, presenting twice yearly fashion shows for Hermès with collections that many regard as the highest expression of quiet luxury – for either men or women – even. Even if Nichanian never designed any women’s wear.

Petite, polished and famously polite, Nichanian held the title of artistic director of the French saddler’s menswear division with a certain sangfroid. Of Armenian origin, Nichanian, 71, began her career at Nino Cerruti, before moving to Hermès.
 

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Her latest and penultimate collection was staged on June 28 in Paris. It exhibited all her skills — a dashing, chic summer collection made from unexpected fabrics. Throughout her career, even if she designed for the most establishment brand in France, Véronique loved using revolutionary materials.
 
Presented inside the Conseil de Surveillance, a temple to French 1930s Rationalist architecture. An airy collection, where trousers were made of leather lattice material, and cardigans in knitted leather.  Half the shirts had openings, inserts or little fabric windows, “latticed with light and air,” in the words of Véronique.

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Over a dozen guys carried big bags, totes, weekenders or sailor keep-alls. “I love a great big bag, since I am a tiny one,” laughed the diminutive, but always dynamic designer.
 
Though famously discreet, her fashion influence was considerable. Dragging men out of dark woolen suits, dressing patricians in the lightest nylon; celebrating life with dramatic printed Hermès silk shirts. Making nonchalance the leitmotif of Hermès – the single most valuable luxury brand on the planet.
 
Her next show, the 76th, in January during Men’s Fashion Week, will be her last. 
 
The house has not announced the name of a new artistic director, though an announcement is expected in the coming days. 

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The house has also yet to release an official communiqué, but did confirm Nichanian is quitting. Curiously, even though the Hermès family is the single most Protestant clan in France, the one interview Nichanian has so far granted has been to Le Figaro; a Paris daily famed for its pro-Catholic leanings.