Her departure adds to the upheaval at the top of the European luxury clothing sector over the last 12 months, which has seen a new generation of designers promoted at a host of brands including Chanel, Dior and Gucci.

Many of them were barely in school when the doyenne of Paris fashion took over menswear at Hermes in 1988 with instructions from then company boss Jean-Louis Dumas to run it "like your small company".

Paris-born Nichanian helped transform a niche luxury brand known for its scarves and leather goods into a global fashion profit machine with sales of menswear estimated at several billion euros a year.

Her design philosophy mirrors her own discreet personality, with a focus on quality and comfort through quiet evolutions, rather than flashy re-invention.

"It is time to pass the torch," the 71-year-old said as she announced her departure in October, adding that she intended to relax more and fulfil "a long-standing dream" of spending several months in Japan.

Hermes is one of the few fashion houses in a male-dominated industry to have women in charge as creative directors.

Womenswear has been designed since 2014 by fellow French couturier Nadege Vanhee-Cybulski, while Nichanian will be replaced by 30-something London designer Grace Wales Bonner, who previously ran her own label.

Wales Bonner, whose work draws on her father's Afro-Caribbean roots in Jamaica and British tailoring, represents a generational and stylistic shift for the classic French house.

"Grace Wales Bonner is very modern, committed... Hermes has chosen someone who will bring not only quality, but also an image and a point of view," Marie Ottavi, a fashion journalist at France's Liberation newspaper, told AFP.

- 'Macho milieu' -

On the eve of her last show, Nichanian told the Business of Fashion website that no one at Hermes had said "you have to stop" but she had felt the need to step back due to the frenetic pace of the corporate business.

"There's so much change, it loses something magic, the something that makes people happy," she told the website about the fashion industry.

"When I talk to my friends at the different houses, they're not happy. It's not only insecurity, it's pressure."

She started out working under Italian designer Nino Cerruti, who plucked her from her Paris fashion school, L'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne (ESCP).

They worked together for eight years before Hermes came knocking.

She told AFP in 2014 she had had to "work harder" and "be determined" as a woman in a man's world.

"It was a pretty macho milieu and the men didn't expect a woman to tell them what to do," she recalled of her early career.

As well as her gradual modernising touch, she has also won fans for her attention to what she calls "selfish" details, hidden touches of luxury such as a lambskin-lined pocket.

"We women can sometimes make concessions to comfort. But men, never," she told Le Figaro newspaper in 2018. "My whole approach, therefore, is to offer them a comfort that should be felt yet remain invisible, imparting a certain sensuality and a relaxed, chic look."

Her final show during Men's Fashion Week on Saturday will be held at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) in the historic Paris stock exchange building in the centre of the French capital.

Her 76th and final show will not be a "retrospective, but full of nods" to her past work, she told Madame Figaro magazine in early January.

adp-mdv/jhb/ceg

Hermès International

Christian Dior