In this year’s Best of the Best, we continue to honour the brands and people who have continued to create covetable products, even in the midst of a global pandemic. Here, we have Hermès top the coat department
Coats have always played an important role as the most visible announcement of one’s style, but after so much time spent inside four walls, outerwear has renewed significance. This was top of mind for Véronique Nichanian, Hermès’s menswear artistic director, who thought long and hard about what makes a great coat – comfort, functionality, versatility – and created a range of pieces that tick all those boxes while being greater than the sum of their parts.
The silhouettes are as timeless as can be. It’s how Nichanian subtly played within such a classic framework, mashing up luxury and utility, that makes these toppers so desirable. Three-quarter-length overcoats in hard-wearing cotton serge or downy double-faced wool are accented with generous, face-framing lapels and angled patch pockets – a jaunty design detail that also offers easy access, constructed with a saddle stitch typically used in Hermès’s equine wares. Roomy mackintoshes come in a proprietary water-repellent toile, printed with Prince of Wales checks and trimmed with the brand’s famed leather. Buttery lambskin is spliced with shearling and technical canvas for cheekily decadent riffs on Patagonia-style fleeces. Whatever the destination, Hermès’s outerwear assortment will get you there in top form.
