Origin Of The Name

FreddieMac

FreddieMac

Member
Jul 3, 2017
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#1
I thought it might be interesting to share and discuss the possible origin of the names of H's materials, items etc. My knowledge of H only goes back a couple of years, so I'm hoping you all have some interesting contributions, beyond the bags named after certain people like Birkin, Kelly and Constance. For instance it would be interesting to know the origin behind leathers names like Box, Togo and Clemence.

A few of my deductions:

Tadelakt
A Berber word meaning 'to rub in' and used to describe a particular waterproof plaster surface with soft character and a matt or shiny texture.
Probably used to describe the leather due to its texture and feel.

Mysore
A city in Karnataka state of India.
Probably used based on the provenance of the skins to produce the leather.
 
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#4
FreddieMac said:
I thought it might be interesting to share and discuss the possible origin of the names of H's materials, items etc. My knowledge of H only goes back a couple of years, so I'm hoping you all have some interesting contributions, beyond the bags named after certain people like Birkin, Kelly and Constance. For instance it would be interesting to know the origin behind leathers names like Box, Togo and Clemence.

A few of my deductions:

Tadelakt
A Berber word meaning 'to rub in' and used to describe a particular waterproof plaster surface with soft character and a matt or shiny texture.
Probably used to describe the leather due to its texture and feel.

Mysore
A city in Karnataka state of India.
Probably used based on the provenance of the skins to produce the leather.
Click to expand...

OMG This is a genius idea!

Taurillon Novillo
Novillo is a surname used by families who have a lot of cattle or a cattle business. A "Novillo" is also a name used to describe a young calf that is around 2-3 years old.
 
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#5
Box calf leather is named after Robert and Joseph Box's shoemaking business. From the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences:


The Joseph Box shoe company was an important London shoemaking business established in 1808 by a ‘ladies shoemaker’ called James Sly. From 1816 Sly’s apprentice was Robert Dixon Box, the fifteen-year-old son of a bankrupted Quaker attorney. Box became manager of the business when Sly died in 1826, subsequently attaining a reputation for fine shoemaking through participation at international exhibitions and by obtaining Royal Warrants. The business became known as Joseph Box Ltd in 1862 after it was transferred to Robert’s son, Joseph. Like his father, Joseph started in the trade at the age of 15, but retired at the relatively early age of 42 to enable his daughters to enter society. Although he transferred the business to his cousins the Box Kinghams in 1882, Joseph maintained an active interest in shoemaking through collecting. Some of the shoes in the collection feature a remarkable 20 stitches to the centimetre exemplifying the attention to detail and quality of workmanship Joseph Box shoes became renowned for. At the end of the century the business was later taken over by royal shoemakers Gundry & Sons, which was itself taken over by John Lobb Ltd some time after 1953.
 
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#6
Also, the White Bus bag is named after Christian Blanckaert, former EVP of Hermès International (translate the name :smile:). Apparently his wife designed the bag, but I don't know her name.

On Tadelakt - this is an actual plaster finish (I have it in my house), traditional Moroccan style as noted earlier. The distinctive striations in Tadelakt leather look a bit like the Tadelakt patina.
 
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#7
QuelleFromage said:
Box calf leather is named after Robert and Joseph Box's shoemaking business. From the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences:


The Joseph Box shoe company was an important London shoemaking business established in 1808 by a ‘ladies shoemaker’ called James Sly. From 1816 Sly’s apprentice was Robert Dixon Box, the fifteen-year-old son of a bankrupted Quaker attorney. Box became manager of the business when Sly died in 1826, subsequently attaining a reputation for fine shoemaking through participation at international exhibitions and by obtaining Royal Warrants. The business became known as Joseph Box Ltd in 1862 after it was transferred to Robert’s son, Joseph. Like his father, Joseph started in the trade at the age of 15, but retired at the relatively early age of 42 to enable his daughters to enter society. Although he transferred the business to his cousins the Box Kinghams in 1882, Joseph maintained an active interest in shoemaking through collecting. Some of the shoes in the collection feature a remarkable 20 stitches to the centimetre exemplifying the attention to detail and quality of workmanship Joseph Box shoes became renowned for. At the end of the century the business was later taken over by royal shoemakers Gundry & Sons, which was itself taken over by John Lobb Ltd some time after 1953.
Click to expand...

and, as we know, Hermes acquired John Lobb in 1976, thus making it Lobb's parent company and allowing Box to remain a very special leather.
 
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#8
Yoshi1296 said:
OMG This is a genius idea!

Taurillon Novillo
Novillo is a surname used by families who have a lot of cattle or a cattle business. A "Novillo" is also a name used to describe a young calf that is around 2-3 years old.
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

Novillo literally means ‘young bull’ in Spanish (from the Latin novellus, I.e. new). For example, before toreros (matadors) graduate to fighting bulls, they are called ‘novilleros’ and they can only bullfight the young bulls. I suspect the use in French (it is certainly not a French word ) may come from this, via the bullfighting in the south of the country.
 
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#11
Wow, thanks all for the wonderful trivia!

Quoting @navicular on this one:

Taurillon Cristobal
According to my SM, it's a reference to Cristóbal Colón, the Spanish version of Christopher Columbus' name.
At around the same time Hermes released another leather whose name has spanish influence - sombrero
Might it have to do with where the skins are sourced? I don't know and neither does he.
 
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#13
Chevre de Coromandel

Coromandel is a coast region in India.


Chevre Chandra

A lunar deity and is one of the nine planets in Hinduism.


Chevres H produce seem to all named something related to India, I looked up and visited a goat farm in Mysore a few years ago just to feel closer to H. :giggle: That was a trip I normally wouldn't make, but was surprisingly a memorable one.
 
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#14
Tonimichelle said:
Credit to @ladysarah for pointing out in another thread that Gulliver was discontinued and replaced by swift, possibly named so after the author of Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift!
Click to expand...

Just for accuracy, Hermesgroupie posted this in 2006:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/reference-hermes-groupie-s-leather-book.49095/#post-903365

I myself posted it in 2009:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/hermes-and-word-play.446635/#post-10503399

And it was @BBC, not @ladysarah, who noted it recently:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/how-are-your-swift-bags-aging.132311/page-7#post-32625999
 
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#15

Novillo literally means ‘young bull’ in Spanish (from the Latin novellus, I.e. new). For example, before toreros (matadors) graduate to fighting bulls, they are called ‘novilleros’ and they can only bullfight the young bulls. I suspect the use in French (it is certainly not a French word ) may come from this, via the bullfighting in the south of the country.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for this! I was doing research but didn't come across this.
 
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