PARIS, Feb 1, 2003/ FW/ --- Hermes men’s wear designer Veronique Nichanian knows her clients. She realizes that the wealthy male clientele who flocks to Hermes for its special level of discreet and beautifully made luxury may be serious businessmen during the week, but at the weekend they feel like letting their hair down.

For fall 2003 the Hermes man will be able to dazzle even the bleakest streets with raspberry pink corduroy pants. Or if the boardroom tiger isn’t that gutsy away from the negotiating table the shade can peek out from inside beautifully tailored jackets or a long belted coat in double-faced cashmere or deerskin that sported large flat buttons.

Flashes of color were often the way to go with a narrow strip of pink on the back of the neck of a charcoal cashmere cardigan or as trim on the front of a similar cardigan in fine black wool. Pink and orange – the house’s signature color – appeared together on tasseled scarves, the latter flashing quickly from the soles of shoes ranging from low suede desert boots to elegant brown Derbies.

The man lacking a love of loud color will be delighted to swathe his anonymity in a brown pinstripe three-piece suit or a two-piece in charcoal stripes whose two-button jacket mismatched the stripes of the trousers below. Nichanian was onto a winner with sexy, fitted and zippered biker jackets in black matte lizard and easy, supple, short zip-up hooded sweatshirts in double-faced lambskin.

For the playboy out there getting ready to seduce the Southern Hemisphere during the Northern winter came silk twill shirts in a patchwork of re-edited scarf prints from the ‘70s.

Horse’s heads vied for attention on the front of a shirt as golf clubs leapt of the back in a solar explosion. In Nichanian Hermes has that most useful of designers – one who consistently respects and furthers the house’s luxury tradition while injecting it with enough wit and intelligence to keep it relevant for a wider audience.

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