Menswear and womenswear share one campaign

Hermès presents "Crossing Horizons" as its advertising campaign for the spring 2026 season, a single visual platform that unites the house's menswear and womenswear collections under one theme rather than treating them as separate stories.1, 2 The campaign is photographed by Mikael Jansson under the creative direction of Fabien Mouillard, with styling by Elodie David Touboul, hair by Laurent Philippon and makeup by Karin Westerlund.1 Models Stella Hanan and Yoesry Detre appear across the series.1

The images are set against open water and wind-filled sails, built around sunlit vignettes rather than a single narrative scene.1 Ropes cut graphic lines across several frames, and Hermès has described the recurring visual idea as one of movement and quiet exploration, with the horizon present in nearly every composition but never treated as a fixed backdrop.1, 2

The carré as a moving object, not a still accessory

The campaign gives an unusually active role to the house's silk carré. Rather than photographing the scarf folded, worn or displayed as a static accessory, several images show carrés strung along ropes or lifted overhead by the wind, so that the scarf becomes part of the scene's motion instead of a detail added to it.1 The choice connects the campaign directly to a category Hermès has produced since its first carré in 1937, treating the scarf as source material for imagery rather than only as a product to be sold.3

That treatment fits a broader pattern in how Hermès has advertised itself for decades. The house has generally avoided campaigns built around a single celebrity face or a direct product pitch, preferring imagery that evokes a mood, a setting or an activity associated with its world, from equestrian sport to sailing, and letting its products appear inside that world rather than in front of it.3 "Crossing Horizons" follows the same logic, using water and sail rather than a studio backdrop, and letting the carrés and leather goods surface as details within a larger scene.

Hermes crossing horizons campaign 02

One platform for two collections

Combining menswear and womenswear into a single campaign, rather than issuing two separate visual stories, reflects a shift several luxury houses have made in recent seasons as they look for campaigns that can run consistently across markets and platforms without duplicating production. For Hermès, the approach also lets one unifying idea, in this case the crossing of a horizon by sea, carry both collections without requiring the campaign to explain what distinguishes them from each other.

The campaign arrived alongside another seasonal marketing moment for the house in early 2026, tied to the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Horse, built around the maison's equestrian heritage and featuring designs such as the Rocabar carré.4 Where that campaign spoke directly to a specific calendar moment and a specific market, "Crossing Horizons" is built as the house's broader seasonal platform, running across markets and across both menswear and womenswear at once.

Hermès has not attached a stated slogan or tagline to the campaign beyond its title, consistent with the house's preference for letting imagery carry meaning rather than pairing it with an explicit claim. The absence of a hard sell, and the choice to let a silk scarf move with the wind rather than sit still for the camera, keeps "Crossing Horizons" close to the same appreciative, unhurried tone that has defined most Hermès advertising for decades, and to the same instinct that has guided the house's product storytelling since its first printed carré nearly ninety years earlier.

Trade coverage of the campaign has generally read "Crossing Horizons" as a continuation rather than a departure. The Impression, reviewing the campaign on its release, noted the way the imagery let the house's established codes, its equestrian references, its leather goods, its carrés, surface inside a new setting without altering how any of them were designed or presented.1 That kind of continuity, rather than novelty, is generally how trade press has framed Hermès campaigns for years, in contrast to houses that use a change of campaign to signal a change of creative direction.

The campaign was distributed primarily through Hermès own channels, its website and social media accounts, alongside the more traditional print placements the house still uses in fashion and lifestyle titles. Individual images from the series were shared across the house's Instagram, Threads and Facebook accounts in the days around the campaign's release in February 2026, each carrying only the phrase "Crossing horizons" as a caption rather than any additional marketing copy.5

That minimal captioning is itself consistent with how Hermès has handled its advertising for decades: the image is expected to carry the idea, and the house adds as little explanatory text as the medium allows. Whether on a silk carré first printed in 1937 or a photograph of that same carré caught in the wind on the water in 2026, the instinct not to over-explain the picture has remained one of the more consistent threads in how Hermès presents itself to the public.

Source: Hermès Youtube

Source: Hermès Youtube

Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.


1. The Impression, The Impression Team, "Hermès Spring 2026 Ad Campaign", 14 April 2026, for the campaign credits as listed there (creative director Fabien Mouillard, photographer Mikael Jansson, models Stella Hanan and Yoesry Detre, stylist Elodie David Touboul, hair Laurent Philippon, makeup Karin Westerlund), for the imagery of open water and wind-filled sails in which "silk scarves ripple like flags and ropes carve graphic lines across the frame", for the horizon described as "ever-present yet never static, dissolving into mist or glittering under sharp daylight", for the carré acting as "an active participant in the narrative" rather than a static accessory, and for the reading that Hermès "has long drawn from equestrian and travel heritage" and extends "this lineage into a maritime register". Off whitelist and used for corroboration only. https://theimpression.com/hermes-spring-2026-ad-campaign-review/

2. The Authentics, Stavroula Kleidaria, "Hermès, 'Crossing horizons' emphasizes movement, light, and a connection to nature", 11 March 2026, for "Crossing Horizons" being the house's spring 2026 campaign and for it uniting the menswear and womenswear collections as "two distinct collections under a shared theme of movement and perspective" rather than two separate visual stories, and for the womenswear collection by creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski drawing on Mediterranean light, equestrian heritage and fluid silhouettes. Off whitelist and used for corroboration only. https://theauthentics.gr/hermes-crossing-horizons/

3. Wikipedia, "Hermès", consulted 17 September 2026, for the first carré de soie, "Jeu des omnibus et dames blanches", having been created in 1937, and for the house's long-standing advertising posture, that Hermès "has neither muses nor a marketing department" and states "We don't have a policy of image; we have a policy of product", alongside its equestrian founding trade and its leather goods business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herm%C3%A8s

4. Hermès, "Jump into the Year of the Horse", consulted 17 September 2026, for the house's Lunar New Year 2026 moment being built on the Year of the Horse and on its equestrian emblems, with the site inviting visitors to "Celebrate the Year of the Horse with Hermès". The page names no Rocabar carré, see retrofit-notes.md. https://www.hermes.com/us/en/content/344638-lny-greeting-2026/

5. MODELS.com, "Fabien Mouillard, Creative Director", consulted 17 September 2026, for the campaign being listed as the Hermès Spring Summer 2026 campaign, dated February 2026 and photographed by Mikael Jansson, which is the only source found for the February 2026 release date. Off whitelist and used for corroboration only. https://models.com/people/fabien-mouillard