What makes Hermès unique in the world of fashion?

If there is any symbolic gesture that can express two hundred years of obsession, it must be the dancing of saddle needles - an experienced craftsman, at this time, her eyes are watching The backs of the two small pieces of leather are close together and have been cut according to certain specifications. In each hand she holds a 5cm needle clad in flax fibers soaked in beeswax. Then, as if holding a surgical instrument, the craftsman waved the needle in his hand, penetrated the leather, and then tightened the suture to tie a tight knot. These leathers may become part of many Hermès products - depending on which of the sixteen Hermès workshops the craftsman works in. But no matter what the final product is, the movements of her hands are still full of impact, like a symphony. This kind of craftsmanship has not changed in the past two hundred years: the earliest leather craftsman Thierry Hermès came to Paris from Germany and founded it in 1837. of this company. From that time on, he used this same set of stitches when hand-making harnesses for celebrities.

Necessary tools for making a saddle. As time goes by, the Hermès family still sticks to its roots

There is no obvious brand logo on Hermès handbags and other products. A few accessories will have an "H" on them, but most people within the company are somewhat resistant to showing the brand logo. The real logo should be that of the craftsman, who leaves his mark on the product from start to finish. In Europe, there are also some other luxury brands that retain a small number of workshops and craftsmen. Some small handicraft workshops with a long history even have tailors wearing white overalls to highlight their historical heritage. But no multinational company sticks to its traditions as stubbornly as Hermès. With the rise of private enterprises, the world is becoming more and more mechanized, and the fashion industry is no exception. But Hermès has been waiting in a rebellious attitude for the end of these superficial and fleeting trends.

The birth of the automobile should have put Hermès out of business. After all, the company originally existed because of horses, and its earliest business was making various equestrian equipment. However, by 1920, Hermès discovered that no matter how transportation methods changed, customer tastes did not. Just a few decades after the Hautà Courroies leather bag, the company began making a bag that would fit in the trunk of a sports car. Later, Hermès designed a golf jacket using an invention called the "zipper" that was not yet well-known at the time, and has since entered the fashion industry.

However, the Hermès family still sticks to its roots: they will use the outline of stirrups as the shape of perfume bottles, or make coat buttons into the style of horse bits. This way, people can recognize it instantly. In the 20th century, the company successively launched men's and women's clothing, silk scarves, shoes, porcelain, jewelry and perfume and other products; by the 21st century, it has developed into an international company with annual sales of US$44 billion. enterprise. But even so, the Hermès family still adheres to its hand-made tradition. They believe that once they start to loosen up and accept the shiny new things, their power will be lost.

Horse-related images still appear in many product designs. The picture shows a recent design sketch by Hermès shoe designer Pierre Hardy

Although family management can keep the brand It has been maintained smoothly, but Hermès, which originated from a handicraft workshop, implements a unique decentralized management model. There is no so-called "head" within this modern enterprise. Instead, it adopts a guild-like structure: there are independent handicraft workshops and corresponding supervisors within the company, responsible for the production of women's clothing, perfumes, shoes, jewelry, and men's clothing. , silk products and household items. France’s haute couture tradition helps maintain the centrality of handcrafting. This organizational structure was once called a "corps demétier," a network of semi-autonomous, highly specialized workshops where craftsmen were trained as apprentices to make a single category of products. product.

In fact, much of what makes Hermès different from other brands comes from its dissonance with the times - Hermès has more than 13,400 employees, 4,000 of whom are craftsmen (such Proportions are rare in any other international luxury brand). After a year of training at an in-house school, craftsmen train under the supervision of a mentor for one to two years before officially starting work. They have three possible locations: the 8th arrondissement of Paris; the 27-year-old Pantin workshop on the outskirts of Paris; or small workshops throughout France. Even in the headquarters on Fubao Avenue, workshops are scattered throughout. As you walk along a corridor, you're bound to see craftsmen behind glass doors busy making patterns on sewing machines or putting together delicate designs.

Macaux Perelman and Fabry in the Pantin workshop. "Hermès has a tradition of focusing on practicality. But it is also a brand full of decoration. This contradiction is very interesting.

Technology is cold, but Hermès is warm. Fabry said. Macaux Perelman said: "What is our dream? To create products that become Hermès icons like Birkin."

In this fashion world that goes directly from the show to the wardrobe, Hermès still has an eye for flashy things. Maintaining restrained contempt and stubbornly insisting on expensive pricing. Looking back, we find that this buck-the-trend philosophy was actually prescient: some companies launched too many entry-level products in order to win over young customers. It was too late when we discovered that the brand’s core heritage could easily disappear if we were not careful. Charlotte Macaux Perelman is an architect who joined Hermès in 2014 together with curator and publisher Alexis Fabry and began to manage the House of Hermès. Together, they are responsible for the furniture and homewares workshops.

A script wall in the Hermès building on Rue Boissy d'Anglas is covered with home design drafts, etc.

The silk scarf may be from the Hermès company The most iconic symbol, debuted in 1937, is called "carrés" internally by Hermès. For the past 16 years, Hermès’ silk scarf workshop has been run by Bali Barret; the process of making silk scarves is also very mysterious, as if creating some kind of handwritten manuscript rather than producing an ornament to be worn around the neck. A Hermès silk product may take two years to complete, while the same process may only take a few weeks at other companies.

Hermès’ silk scarf workshop launches 20 new designs every year (ten each for spring, summer and autumn and winter series). For the 20 designs, outside artists and illustrators would submit hundreds of sketches. As a manager, Barret will recruit artists from all over the world, and even search for new design talents from all over the world. Like her colleagues at the studio, she creates meticulous archives. One of her magic weapons is thousands of hand-bound old design collections. By studying these, she can avoid repeating ideas and stimulate new ones.

Barret previously had his own fashion brand. Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès, hired her to run the company’s scarf workshop in 2003. In 2009, she was appointed Artistic Director of the Hermès Women's World by the company, overseeing all women's products, including ready-to-wear, accessories, shoes, jewelry and fragrances. "Scarf design is sometimes like science and sometimes it's like art," Barret said. "You have to try to solve complex problems, and they involve hundreds of aspects, all of which are there at the same time."

The silk scarf workshop is located in Lyon, southeast of Paris, which can be reached in two hours by high-speed train. The studio houses a color workshop with 25 employees, where the inks used for the season’s scarves are mixed by hand (each design has eight to 12 color schemes). Barret prefers to use Hermès’ own more than 75,000 documented color palettes. Most Tuesdays, the Lyon team travels to Paris for sample presentations. Barret would stand in front of a giant whiteboard with rows of silk scarves held in place by magnets. She would then give her opinion on the scarves. Meetings can last up to nine hours, and then the following Tuesday, the team presents the new, revised design to Barret, seeks her feedback, and then repeats the work the following Tuesday until everyone is happy with the results.

The upcoming "? l'Ombre des Pivoines" (Under the Shadow of Peonies) silk scarf in the new series has been revamped

The above is just the work before the scarf is produced. A scarf may use up to 45 panels, each color pressed onto thick silk produced from three hundred raw silkworm cocoons in the Hermès workshop in Pantin. "Making silk scarves is the purest," Barret said. "The finished product you get is like a painting. It is perfect."

Pierre Hardy has been making shoes at Hermès for nearly thirty years A designer and jewelry creative director. He likes straightforward and easy-to-understand designs as well as interesting styles. So this year, you’ll see cloud cutouts on suede platforms and Sputnik-style heels. Véronique Nichanian, a menswear designer since 1988, added a graphic of a dragon pulling a carriage to her fall collection. Christine Nagel became Hermès’ perfumer in 2016, succeeding perfume legend Jean-Claude Ellena. She chose to use an abstract approach to express the theme, launching a floral fragrance that "blends the sweetness of white musk and the scent of daydreams."

Hardy, a former erudite dancer and illustrator, has been a shoe designer for Hermès since 1990 and has dabbled in designing jewelry since 2001. He works from two locations: his studio in Paris, where he has designed the products for his eponymous brand for the past two decades, and the Hermès shoemaking workshop in Pantin. “There are no rules or golden rules here,” Hardy said. “The model works here because it has a great crew, like an orchestra. Everyone is on track at all times. ”

It is said that this is the most stringent management of creative work within Hermès. Pierre-Alexis Dumas is tall and agile. He studied visual arts at Brown University. He often wonders where Hermès should go in this increasingly fast-paced world: If it continues to maintain an "unfashionable" style, it will face some challenges. No other company of its kind is vertically integrated, controlling most of its raw materials while also exercising complete control over many items from conception to completion. Hermès has been growing strongly in online commerce since 2001, but its adaptation to social media has been less than smooth. But Pierre-Alexis Dumas believes that the digital world "creates an illusion that makes people feel like everything is getting closer, but in fact the important things are getting further away from people."

Nichanian has been a menswear designer for Hermès since 1988. “Men who wear Hermès know what beauty is,” she said. “They know what is truly good and they don’t need anyone else to tell them. . Therefore, each item should have its own meaning, and they should each express a complete story, not just a part of the look. I hope they can last forever." Right: Spring. Leather used in the collection

Over the past decade, there has been an anti-mechanization cultural trend around the world, with many people beginning to celebrate handcraftsmanship, which will naturally benefit companies like Hermès. But at the same time, they still face pressure to attract the attention of younger generations. Pierre-Alexis Dumas' aim is to give contemporary expression to the company's sophistication and sophistication. As a result, Hermès has recently invested a lot of time and money in hosting events around the world, showcasing the craftsmanship that goes into making its products in all sorts of unexpected places. You can bring your mother's silk scarf to the event, and Hermès will use a futuristic professional machine to overdye the scarf to create a psychedelic new color. petit h is a handicraft workshop founded in 2010 by Pascale Mussard, a member of the Hermès family. Hermès uses it to express its interpretation of sustainability. The idea is both ambitious and playful: the studio collects scraps of leather, silk, extra buttons, and imperfect crystal glassware left over from worktops and transforms them into unique pieces, like the Teddy Bears, Christmas decorations, quirky, embellished handbags and more.

After the respected Jean-Claude Ellena, the “nose” of Hermès fragrances, retired, Nagel took over as the company’s perfumer. When asked where to choose her workshop, she chose a top-floor room with a terrace in Pantin. From there, one can overlook the entire workshop complex, where Jean-Louis Dumas, the father of current creative director Pierre-Alexis Dumas, also worked there. “I’ve been given the greatest gift: time,” she says. “I’ve never been given a budget or a deadline. I’ve never done a focus group. You work to create, so Just working for Hermès." Right: Above is a row of perfumes designed by Nagel, and below are some of her inspirations

Since Hermès still maintains a guild-like operation model, the internal work process It also proceeds from bottom to top. Sometimes, when Hermès lacks certain expertise in-house, they work with outside craftsmen. But these craftsmen are getting older, and their children are less interested in inheriting the skills. Some of Hermès’ competitors have pursued growth and even created new categories to satisfy shareholders. But unlike them, Pierre-Alexis Dumas and his cousin Axel Dumas seem to be more inclined to retreat and invest more energy in cultivating internal and scattered partners around the world and continuing their craftsmanship.

"Here, your ideas are all given their place, and you can't do that anywhere else. People don't say here: 'Oh, this can't be done, the cost is too high.'" Hardy said explain. He was a learned dancer and illustrator in the past.

Hardy himself was so creative that Axel Dumas and Pierre-Alexis Dumas accommodated him by even allowing him to remain a freelancer. He still maintains his eponymous shoe brand in Paris and also designs shoes for Nicolas Ghesquière (2001-2012). But in his heart, Hermès has always been his home, and it always reminds him of the world of dance: "There is a sense of faith here that makes me feel very comfortable. It's like family: they love you very much and allow you to make mistakes. Wrong. ”

Vanhee-Cybulski joined Hermès in 2014 as a womenswear designer. Her studio is located in Pantin, next to the “leather cellar” (a semi-secret, temperature-controlled cellar where rolls of exotic furs are stored). However, she spends a lot of time in Italy and in factories around the world. "We don't talk about luxury at Hermès," she said. "We talk about intelligence." At Hermès, shoes are as much about women's ready-to-wear as they are about Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski. , is a very special challenge. While most of Hermès' products are designed to be worn or used by generations, shoes and clothes are always influenced by fashion trends. Especially women's shoes, no matter how carefully they are made, they are meant to be worn on the street. "They may be valuable for a season or two, and then customers want new ones," Hardy said frankly.

"You still have to fully conceive the design of the product," he added. "You can't let the longevity of the product affect you." Hardy's latest attempt is to explore high-tech running shoes - which is also Hermès. Trying to adapt to the signs of the times. Every other brand of running shoes in the world is made in Asian factories, even those that cost over $500. But Hermès expanded its Pantin workshop to the maximum capacity to meet the needs of producing running shoes. "They're a completely different engineering technology, just like building a car," Hardy said.

The prototype of a coat in the women's clothing workshop

A sample in the Hermès workshop. Hermès always insists that products come first

She knows , Fashion is about eating youth food. This is what it is, or at least the way it has always evolved. Many times, due to time constraints, people’s talents cannot be put to use; the endless launch of new products, the anxiety of making profits, and the pressure brought by wanting to reduce costs and make a difference. These factors all torture designers, causing them to eventually Leave this industry. But Hermès chooses an elegant rhythm that is not limited by time: it does not care what the current trend is, and prefers to stay outside the trend. Because of this, it has become a unique existence. In a world that is itself unfashionable, products come first, they are created for eternity. It’s also a culture that calmly resists instant gratification. Contemplative and literary, Hardy often pondered the nature of freedom. He sat on the long table in the shoe studio, fiddling with the strange elements he planned to add to the new collection - an iron heel modeled after a small Jean Arp sculpture, and a square buckle-sized heel. Buckle. “As you get older, you lose freedom because your possibilities start to be limited,” he said. “But you know what, I feel freer now than I did 15 years ago. And that’s not true anywhere else. Impossible. Everyone knows that here, when the products are finished, it is precisely because of the continuous polishing by the hands of the craftsmen that they become more beautiful than you originally expected.

”

Click "Read the original text" to make a Kelly handbag that is unique to you

Written by: Nancy Hass

Photographed by: Olivier Metzger

< p> Makeup and Hair: Hue Lan Van Duc & Géraldine Lemaire

Photography Assistant: Martin Varet

Translation: Youyisi Wang Di

Arrangement: Antoine Yang < /p>

Copyright ? 2019 T Magazine. All Rights Reserved