“Something to look forward to” was the season’s motto for Michelle Ochs at Hervé Léger. The designer is celebrating a milestone birthday this year with her first big trip in some time, she said, which put her in a wanderlust state of mind as she approached her spring lineup.
The idea here was to imbue some positivity, paired with a wardrobe versatile enough to pack up and travel. But Ochs’s birthday and a well-deserved holiday are not all she has ahead of her. This lineup marks a full year of the designer at the label, which has undergone a series of tepid revamps over the past decade or so. Now with a sampling of every season and preseason under her belt, Ochs could really get to work and take Hervé Léger into unexplored territory.
There was the color: vibrant pastels paired with neutrals and primary reds and blues. The shapes: minidresses, cocktail sheaths, and floor-length gowns fashioned both in the signature Hervé Léger bandage knit and softly draped jersey. And the details: Ochs explored the label’s couture archives to find techniques she could apply to her ready-to-wear, she said at a preview. Most striking was the way she had bandage strips fold and twist away from the body to build a sense of depth in the shape of peekaboo cutouts, and how she layered rounded panels under straight strips to create a playful yet flattering optical illusion. Ochs also expanded the classic bandage language by softly scalloping its edges or inserting mesh in between strips. “I always ask, ‘How do we give her something she hasn’t seen?’” said the designer. The way in which Ochs has managed to introduce a set of new yet approachable iterations of the Hervé Léger language every season since taking on the job should be commended. Not every designer is able to merge a sense of ingenuity with solid commercial appeal.
“I think it’s come a long way,” said Ochs, reflecting on her year at Hervé Léger. “My goal was always for her to feel like a woman today.” That she’s done. “I want to give her legs,” the designer said when she presented an initial preview of her collection at the Vogue offices just over a year ago. She really meant pants and separates then, but transforming her statement into a metaphor seems apropos here: Ochs’s Hervé Léger certainly has the potential to go the distance.