How French Ballet Dancer Hugo Marchand Kicked Off His Dance Season

Reported by Vogue.

There's a particular kind of person who can wear a head-to-toe black leather jumpsuit to one of Paris's most storied cultural events and make it look inevitable. Hugo Marchand is that person. The Paris Opera Ballet étoile opened the city's official dance season this weekend at the Opéra Garnier — a house he's called home since entering its school in 2007 — and he did it in a re-edition of a Hermès leather style first seen in the maison's fall 1991 menswear collection. According to Vogue, Marchand worked with stylist and close friend Christopher Rao to land on the piece, from Véronique Nichanian's final fall 2026 collection for the house.

He grounded the archival jumpsuit with a charcoal poplin sleeveless top, calfskin boots, and a deliberate hand with jewelry — diamond pavé rings, an earring, and a chaîne d'ancre necklace, all kept intentionally restrained. "The jewelry was more discreet and subtle, which created a nice balance," Marchand said. The result: moto-inflected, quietly disruptive, and exactly right for a man who wanted to signal that this season means something. "I like that it is a bit disruptive, and not really expected in that kind of event," he added. When your default uniform is a leotard, a leather jumpsuit on the red carpet reads as a genuine statement.

On Stage, the Stakes Are Different

The gala itself opened with Marchand and fellow principal Germain Louvet performing the pas de deux Rings of Saturn by Juliano Nuñes — a moment Marchand described as moving precisely because of the friendship underneath it. The evening also featured the company's celebrated Défilé, the full-company processional that Marchand says hits differently the longer you've been a part of it. "It really helps you measure the time passing, and what you represent for the institution." That's not nostalgia — that's someone who understands legacy while still operating at the peak of it.

The rest of October belongs to L'Histoire de Manon, a production with serious personal weight: it was the first leading role Marchand received at 21, and he's currently dancing it alongside Dorothée Gilbert, who is performing her farewell this Thursday after more than a decade as his partner. The ballet is technically brutal — elevated lifts, Marchand says, that are "difficult, elevated, dangerous even" — and emotionally demanding enough that it requires excavating your own interior life to make it land. After Paris, the production travels to Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón in November, then London's Royal Ballet Covent Garden. December brings a return to Paris for the triple bill Rituals at Opéra Bastille.

Between all of it, Marchand says his off days are spent in deliberate recovery — physical, mental, emotional — because giving everything at every performance requires having something left to give. A leather jumpsuit at the season opener, a farewell pas de deux with your longtime partner, and a tour across three continents: this is what it looks like when someone takes their work seriously enough to dress for both the art and the occasion.

Read the original at Vogue.