Sexy sporty at Hermès? Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski went that way for fall—joining, in her own way, the female-gaze point of view on the subject of skin exposure that’s coming from a rising generation of women designers across the United States, Europe, and China. “I wanted to have a tight expression of what occurs today, beyond the equestrian,” she said. “It’s really about how do you translate classicism and sophistication and chic into the idea of a woman really assuming her femininity? The fact that sex is okay—it’s not something to be ashamed of.”

One of her solutions was the forward march of body-mapped shorts, in the abbreviated, engineered shapes of knitted onesies and form-hugging leather. The other was the manipulation of opaque-sheer techniques in narrow stripe formation—the shadow-play geometry on a sweater or a flared skirt with its vertical strips of leather interlinked with semitransparent lacy panels.

The body-con trend might have hit Hermès; the body-positive movement, which is indivisible from it, noticeably hasn’t. Instead, Vanhee-Cybulski invested her thinking about short shorts in making aesthetic judgments about proportions and footwear. “I also wanted to ‘stretch’ the legs,” she reasoned, “and to treat the riding boots in another way, almost like a ballerina.” She meant the square-toe, pebble-heel, calf-hugging over-the-knee boots—on point (as it were) alternatives to the heavy footwear that is dominating current fashion.

Still, while many of Hermès’s customers appreciate modernity, their loyalty is won by the parts of the house output that don’t change. Or don’t change enough to frighten the horses. So much of the label’s attraction is in coats—formal coats, country coats, coats that are country-posh but worn on city streets.

Vanhee-Cybulski sent out several of these faultless types. A minimal matte black leather zip-up coat; easier shapes in white and brown; coats and jackets that mixed loden wool with leather paneling and piping. We’ll see if the skimpy-sporty trend she addressed will have legs beyond the end of this year. What’s for sure, though: Hermès outerwear is built to carry on its superluxe heritage, regardless.