Hermes delivers vacation-chic menswear show

The models, in relaxed linen-blend trousers and sweater-vests in dark, masculine colors, looked as if they'd just stepped off a yacht in Antibes or checked into a five-star hotel in Arles.

"I've been thinking a lot about vacation, in fact I'm thinking about it now," Hermes' menswear designer, Veronique Nichanian, said with a smile in a post-show interview. "This season's man is relaxed, a cool man rather than a city man."

Nichanian drove that point home by replacing the catwalk's usual concrete or asphalt with a thick layer of rich red earth. Fashionistas in spike heels punctured deep holes into the catwalk -- which, under the powerful spotlights, radiated heat worthy of the south of France. Throughout the display, in a 15th century former monastery on Paris' Left Bank, the crowd sweated and fanned themselves with the collection notes.

For the spring-summer 2010 collection, Nichanian stuck to the clean lines and luxurious materials for which Hermes -- which began as a saddlemaker -- is famous. Buttery leather wind breakers and trenches were worn over cuffed, high-water linen pants in somber browns and blues.

Shorts in apple green bridle-prints were paired with featherweight cardigans and vests or silk shirts and neckerchiefs, a masculine variation on the label's perennial best-selling scarves.

In a season dominated by gladiator sandals -- omnipresent on Paris' catwalks -- Hermes' espadrille moccasins were a welcome change.

The real test of the collection will be how many high-end vacationers are still able to splurge on holiday-chic apparel from a label where prices begin at high and quickly become as vertiginous as the fashionistas' sunken heels.