Hugo Matha opted for embroidered phoenix motifs, red and black snakeskin, and painted alligator in electric blue for his latest lineup of handbags mixing vintage and architectural inspirations.
Matha presented the collection at a party in the Paris apartment and studio he shares with the calligrapher and illustrator Nicolas Ouchenir.
Now in his third year designing the namesake accessories line, Matha was joined at the presentation by a handful of fellow fashion start-uppers including Alexandra Van Houtte of Tag-walk.com and Elizabeth Hilfiger.
Hilfiger — daughter of designer Tommy — sells hoodies and T-shirts decorated by body piercings on her e-store Fooandfoo.com, which went live only two weeks ago.
Van Houtte’s Tag-walk.com is a search engine that labels images from the fashion shows with an array of detailed keywords — an aspiring “Google” for the runway.
Seeing which tags occur most often during the fashion weeks can provide empirical insight on emerging trends, Van Houtte said. “The biggest runway trend so far is transparent,” she said, “In street style we’re still seeing a lot of silver.”