Closeups of the Yohji bag show the deceptively simple lines that now bear the Hermès name.

Hermès has always been a locked box, working with no one to produce its legendary bags. The Kelly and the Birkin are singular sensations from the French house. However, a new partnership with Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto opens a new chapter.

The Tokyo born designer abandoned his plans for a law degree to study fashion. Yamamoto’s style tends to strike a somber note of skewed proportions, simple lines, and dark color that walk the line of androgyny. His lines launched from ground zero in 1981. After riding high for decades, his design house filed for bankruptcy in October 2009. Hopefully, this partnership with the French label is the guiding light.

The new Yohji bag was originally introduced in the Autumn-Winter 2008 fashion show. It’s now hitting the market, in time for the spring thaw. The bag speaks volumes for Yamamoto’s style, with flowing, loose lines.

You’ll have the best luck in obtaining one if you are in Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo, or London, and they’re available in three sizes of 35, 38, or 41 cm.

Though the bag appeared in crocodile leather on the runways at Paris Fashion Week, these bags are going to appear in the label’s classic saddle Barenia calfskin leather.

So it’s super casual, easy, and carefree — a very marked departure from the structured grace of past Hermès designs. Can be a good thing to depart from the steady, well-lit path to uncharted waters. After all, Hermes had found success with a past experiment — it was the first label to incorporate a zipper in a handbag at the turn of the last century.

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