Left to right: Chanel, Hermés, Kate Moss at Louis Vuitton.
I’ve never been a big fan of animals on the runway. That pit bull who used to close the AsFour show terrified me; the wayward sheep on Miguel Androver’s 2001 catwalk seemed to presage the designer’s downfall. So when Hermès sends out a falcon perched on a model’s arm during Christophe Lemaire’s debut collection for the house, I can only think maybe this is meant as a distraction from Hermès CEO Patrick Thomas’s now-notorious comment last week? Regarding the hostile takeover attempt by LVMH, a clueless Thomas observed: “If you want to seduce a beautiful woman, you don’t start by raping her from behind.” (It certainly has been a season for verbal assaults.)