Hermès So Black

So Black was Jean-Paul Gaultier's final act at Hermès. Shown in 2010 at the end of his tenure as creative director, it remains the only Hermès collection produced with matching black PVD hardware, and the house's own description of it was blunt: made for monochromatic blackaholics.

The idea was subtraction. Leather, hardware, lock, keys, stitching and even the packaging were rendered in black, and the heat stamp was struck without foil, so nothing on the bag catches light as a separate component. Hermès built the collection in Box calf, matte alligator and crocodile, and in a handful of pieces set with panels of saturated-black feathers by Maison Lemarié, the couture feather atelier founded in 1880. Those feather examples are the rarest of the run.

It has never been reissued in its original form. What follows is what JaneFinds has handled, in stock and archived.