It’s a new day at Hervé Léger. Spring sees freshly minted creative director Michelle Ochs take the reins for the brand, evolving it forward. “It’s not a rebrand,” Ochs cautioned from the brand showroom. “They haven’t had a female designer in a minute, I’m bringing a new female perspective. It’s a reset.”
Ochs looked to the archives of the brand as a way to anchor herself and begin to tell her story. “It’s such a rich history, it’s decades. Absolutely everyone’s got their own story of an Herve dress,” she said.
Consumers are familiar with its bandage dress and celebration of the female form, a DNA that falls right in line with Ochs’ previous work — one half of the creative team at Cushnie et Ochs who later launched Et Ochs in 2021 — where she firmly used the language of body-con but giving it a modern, urban polish. For her, it’s been a successful recipe and it’s exactly what is taking shape at Hervé Léger under her watch.
A fine cashmere knit, something she found in the archive, retooled now as a black short jacket with matching pant, shows the direction she is taking. The brand may be thought of as youthful, and certainly it still is, but Ochs sees it through the lens of ready to wear, proposing more than just cocktail party dresses, which opes the door to a woman of any age. A denim technique on a mix of pieces also stands out as a new direction. Yes, there are dresses, but often the classic straps are graded, creating a trompe l’oeil effect and bringing texture and depth, other key points to her reset. Ochs fills out the range with a mix of staples — sheer long sleeve tees, perfect for layering, or bandage style bodysuits.
The brand has a 50th anniversary on the horizon next year, something Ochs is keen to celebrate. Who knows, maybe it’s time to bring the clothes back to the runway to see her reset in motion.
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Source: WWD