Scarves Chiffon (mousseline) scarves

[scarf1]

Mousseline friends, many of you who have been following this thread for years have heard me blather on endlessly about how much I love mousselines. They are my favorite, favorite thing Hermes makes. Even the ones I've had the longest still make my heart pitter-patter when I pull them out. So I'm not thrilled to need to post a rant/lament/PSA here regarding the quality of current mousselines.

Everyone, please please please, if you are buying mousselines from this season or 2017, CHECK YOUR MOUSSELINES THOROUGHLY in the boutique, held up in a decently-lit area, before taking them home.

Yesterday I received a stole I was very excited about, the Savana Dance in a fabulous absinthe green with peach accents. It was sent brand-new from the web shop and shipped to store. Having had negative experiences with the quality of last summer's mousselines, I asked the SA to unfurl it for my inspection. I was horrified to see around a dozen pulls and fractures in the fabric. We unfurled a different colorway that the boutique had. Same thing, albeit slightly less pervasive. See the pics for a couple of examples of what I mean.

These would be easy enough to miss if you weren't looking carefully, but they should NOT be present in a brand-new mousseline. Frankly, my oldest mousselines wouldn't even show these types of problems even if you ran over them with a mack truck. Post-2007, sure, some of them will eventually show little slubs in the fabric, which look a bit like the textured areas of shantung silk. But nothing like this, and pulls don't occur in any of them up to summer 2017 without something actually snagging on them.

What changed in summer 2017? According to a lovely SA who is the scarf buyer for her boutique, Hermes has decided to produce the mousselines using thinner threads. Supposedly people complained that they were "too hot." I have my suspicions about the corporate rationale for this change, but whether or not they really changed thing at customers' insistence, I can't see it as anything but a change for the worse. Mousselines I saw last summer without pulls, even brand-new from the cellophane, were the exception, not the rule. My Iris mousseline is fragile in the extreme, and has to be babied to survive being knotted. When packed, it emerges with creases and crinkles looking sad and squashed.

Do I freak out when one of my mousselines gets a slub or a pull because I've worn it many many times, or when I've done something to cause a problem with my own carelessness? Certainly not. Do I think it's unacceptable for Hermes to sell mousselines that are so inherently frail that they couldn't even survive packing and transit to the customer without showing damage? Oh most certainly I do. And my tolerance for declining quality varies inversely with the ever-steeper prices that H is charging. If I didn't know they could do better, I wouldn't be stomping my foot over this-- but I have 34 pre-2017 mousselines in my drawers that say otherwise.

Check your moussies, everyone! No judgement here if you find a bunch of pulls and decide to buy one anyway. If anyone understands being overcome by the beauty of the mousselines, it's me. I myself am asking H to send me a pristine replacement for the Savana stole, even though I know that seeing so many new mousselines with these problems means they will not wear with the hardiness of the older mousselines. But I absolutely won't buy one that is damaged from the get-go, and if customer comments are what drive H's changes to the mousselines, this customer has a lot to tell them! If you've experienced this same issue, do let your SA and H customer service know. I would hate to see the mousseline format (which has dwindled from two seasons and four formats to one season and two formats) die out entirely, and I do believe that if people have bad experiences with their durability, they'll cease to sell and H will kill them completely.

Okay, rant/advisory notice over! I promise I'll make up for this grouchy post with pretty pics of some new-to-me (but older issue!) additions soon.

View attachment 3981672 View attachment 3981674

Oh no! I will have to check mine tomorrow in the daylight.

 

[werner]

I'm not shocked to hear this, as the weight of CSGMs has changed over the years, as well. As a lover of mousselines, it is sad to read this, but as I said, not surprising. Back to relying on trusted resellers for preowned from whom I've had great experiences in the past.

 

[rania1981]

Mousseline friends, many of you who have been following this thread for years have heard me blather on endlessly about how much I love mousselines. They are my favorite, favorite thing Hermes makes. Even the ones I've had the longest still make my heart pitter-patter when I pull them out. So I'm not thrilled to need to post a rant/lament/PSA here regarding the quality of current mousselines.

Everyone, please please please, if you are buying mousselines from this season or 2017, CHECK YOUR MOUSSELINES THOROUGHLY in the boutique, held up in a decently-lit area, before taking them home.

Yesterday I received a stole I was very excited about, the Savana Dance in a fabulous absinthe green with peach accents. It was sent brand-new from the web shop and shipped to store. Having had negative experiences with the quality of last summer's mousselines, I asked the SA to unfurl it for my inspection. I was horrified to see around a dozen pulls and fractures in the fabric. We unfurled a different colorway that the boutique had. Same thing, albeit slightly less pervasive. See the pics for a couple of examples of what I mean.

These would be easy enough to miss if you weren't looking carefully, but they should NOT be present in a brand-new mousseline. Frankly, my oldest mousselines wouldn't even show these types of problems even if you ran over them with a mack truck. Post-2007, sure, some of them will eventually show little slubs in the fabric, which look a bit like the textured areas of shantung silk. But nothing like this, and pulls don't occur in any of them up to summer 2017 without something actually snagging on them.

What changed in summer 2017? According to a lovely SA who is the scarf buyer for her boutique, Hermes has decided to produce the mousselines using thinner threads. Supposedly people complained that they were "too hot." I have my suspicions about the corporate rationale for this change, but whether or not they really changed thing at customers' insistence, I can't see it as anything but a change for the worse. Mousselines I saw last summer without pulls, even brand-new from the cellophane, were the exception, not the rule. My Iris mousseline is fragile in the extreme, and has to be babied to survive being knotted. When packed, it emerges with creases and crinkles looking sad and squashed.

Do I freak out when one of my mousselines gets a slub or a pull because I've worn it many many times, or when I've done something to cause a problem with my own carelessness? Certainly not. Do I think it's unacceptable for Hermes to sell mousselines that are so inherently frail that they couldn't even survive packing and transit to the customer without showing damage? Oh most certainly I do. And my tolerance for declining quality varies inversely with the ever-steeper prices that H is charging. If I didn't know they could do better, I wouldn't be stomping my foot over this-- but I have 34 pre-2017 mousselines in my drawers that say otherwise.

Check your moussies, everyone! No judgement here if you find a bunch of pulls and decide to buy one anyway. If anyone understands being overcome by the beauty of the mousselines, it's me. I myself am asking H to send me a pristine replacement for the Savana stole, even though I know that seeing so many new mousselines with these problems means they will not wear with the hardiness of the older mousselines. But I absolutely won't buy one that is damaged from the get-go, and if customer comments are what drive H's changes to the mousselines, this customer has a lot to tell them! If you've experienced this same issue, do let your SA and H customer service know. I would hate to see the mousseline format (which has dwindled from two seasons and four formats to one season and two formats) die out entirely, and I do believe that if people have bad experiences with their durability, they'll cease to sell and H will kill them completely.

Okay, rant/advisory notice over! I promise I'll make up for this grouchy post with pretty pics of some new-to-me (but older issue!) additions soon.

View attachment 3981672 View attachment 3981674

I haven’t seen the newer issue mousselines as my store completely stopped ordering them. When I asked why they don’t order this format I was told due to too many customer complaints. Sad because the climate I live in, this light format worked for me

 

[Meta]

@calexandre I'm sorry to hear about your Savana Dance mousseline stole. I had the same experience when I was looking for the "perfect" Iris mousseline in 03 last year. I didn't do my due diligence the first time around, bought one and upon examination found flaws in it before I was going to wear it out. I then examined a total of SEVEN brand new Iris 03 mousselines from various stores, including many that were wrapped in plastic, fresh from Pantin. Each one had its own flaws (be it a pull/run, or holes along the hem). I even messaged @papertiger who bought the exact same cw to check if she had the same issues and thankfully for her, she didn't.


I ended up picking another cw for the Iris mousseline and I had tried on 7 out of the 8 cws. I did not notice the same issue on the other cws that I tried.

 

[papertiger]

Mousseline friends, many of you who have been following this thread for years have heard me blather on endlessly about how much I love mousselines. They are my favorite, favorite thing Hermes makes. Even the ones I've had the longest still make my heart pitter-patter when I pull them out. So I'm not thrilled to need to post a rant/lament/PSA here regarding the quality of current mousselines.

Everyone, please please please, if you are buying mousselines from this season or 2017, CHECK YOUR MOUSSELINES THOROUGHLY in the boutique, held up in a decently-lit area, before taking them home.

Yesterday I received a stole I was very excited about, the Savana Dance in a fabulous absinthe green with peach accents. It was sent brand-new from the web shop and shipped to store. Having had negative experiences with the quality of last summer's mousselines, I asked the SA to unfurl it for my inspection. I was horrified to see around a dozen pulls and fractures in the fabric. We unfurled a different colorway that the boutique had. Same thing, albeit slightly less pervasive. See the pics for a couple of examples of what I mean.

These would be easy enough to miss if you weren't looking carefully, but they should NOT be present in a brand-new mousseline. Frankly, my oldest mousselines wouldn't even show these types of problems even if you ran over them with a mack truck. Post-2007, sure, some of them will eventually show little slubs in the fabric, which look a bit like the textured areas of shantung silk. But nothing like this, and pulls don't occur in any of them up to summer 2017 without something actually snagging on them.

What changed in summer 2017? According to a lovely SA who is the scarf buyer for her boutique, Hermes has decided to produce the mousselines using thinner threads. Supposedly people complained that they were "too hot." I have my suspicions about the corporate rationale for this change, but whether or not they really changed thing at customers' insistence, I can't see it as anything but a change for the worse. Mousselines I saw last summer without pulls, even brand-new from the cellophane, were the exception, not the rule. My Iris mousseline is fragile in the extreme, and has to be babied to survive being knotted. When packed, it emerges with creases and crinkles looking sad and squashed.

Do I freak out when one of my mousselines gets a slub or a pull because I've worn it many many times, or when I've done something to cause a problem with my own carelessness? Certainly not. Do I think it's unacceptable for Hermes to sell mousselines that are so inherently frail that they couldn't even survive packing and transit to the customer without showing damage? Oh most certainly I do. And my tolerance for declining quality varies inversely with the ever-steeper prices that H is charging. If I didn't know they could do better, I wouldn't be stomping my foot over this-- but I have 34 pre-2017 mousselines in my drawers that say otherwise.

Check your moussies, everyone! No judgement here if you find a bunch of pulls and decide to buy one anyway. If anyone understands being overcome by the beauty of the mousselines, it's me. I myself am asking H to send me a pristine replacement for the Savana stole, even though I know that seeing so many new mousselines with these problems means they will not wear with the hardiness of the older mousselines. But I absolutely won't buy one that is damaged from the get-go, and if customer comments are what drive H's changes to the mousselines, this customer has a lot to tell them! If you've experienced this same issue, do let your SA and H customer service know. I would hate to see the mousseline format (which has dwindled from two seasons and four formats to one season and two formats) die out entirely, and I do believe that if people have bad experiences with their durability, they'll cease to sell and H will kill them completely.

Okay, rant/advisory notice over! I promise I'll make up for this grouchy post with pretty pics of some new-to-me (but older issue!) additions soon.

View attachment 3981672 View attachment 3981674

Ho ho ho, seriously LOL and also a "yer, right?"

I've always been paranoid about the moussies recently (that's why I ask you to check before I buy, you have such a good eye) but did I tell you I found a hole in my AW17 140 silk? To my judgement = Huge. Those are not even Plume weight.

Perhaps Hermes need written feedback of a different kind. Et en masse.

I ticked 'like' button which seems like schadenfreude, but it's because I'm so sympathising with your disappointment .The colours here are wonderful.

Likewise

 

[papertiger]

@calexandre I'm sorry to hear about your Savana Dance mousseline stole. I had the same experience when I was looking for the "perfect" Iris mousseline in 03 last year. I didn't do my due diligence the first time around, bought one and upon examination found flaws in it before I was going to wear it out. I then examined a total of SEVEN brand new Iris 03 mousselines from various stores, including many that were wrapped in plastic, fresh from Pantin. Each one had its own flaws (be it a pull/run, or holes along the hem). I even messaged @papertiger who bought the exact same cw to check if she had the same issues and thankfully for her, she didn't.
View attachment 3983151 View attachment 3983183 View attachment 3983184

I ended up picking another cw for the Iris mousseline and I had tried on 7 out of the 8 cws. I did not notice the same issue on the other cws that I tried.

I remember! Happily mine seems freakishly fine - so far. Perhaps it was a different batch. It maybe that Iris has such a bold spare print there's no masking any faults. Those tension faults to the hem in one photo are unforgivable.

 

[frou frou]

Hermès need to brace up and face their problems .It could be perceived as a slackness across the company as a whole rather than just a mousseline problem. If were in charge I'd be round at the factories or mills whatever with a very big stick!
It would be easy for them to fix by returning to older methods ,they need to investigate at which point the pursuit of super thin mousselines [supposedly at request of customers ???] resulted in appalling fragility .
I don't care for the very thick or double versions myself.
i have only owned 5 or 6 mousselines of which Brides de Gala en Finesse,Axis Mundi and Coeur de la Vie were well nigh perfect; crease free and very strong.

 

[textilegirl]

@calexandre I'm sorry to hear about your Savana Dance mousseline stole. I had the same experience when I was looking for the "perfect" Iris mousseline in 03 last year. I didn't do my due diligence the first time around, bought one and upon examination found flaws in it before I was going to wear it out. I then examined a total of SEVEN brand new Iris 03 mousselines from various stores, including many that were wrapped in plastic, fresh from Pantin. Each one had its own flaws (be it a pull/run, or holes along the hem). I even messaged @papertiger who bought the exact same cw to check if she had the same issues and thankfully for her, she didn't.
View attachment 3983151 View attachment 3983183 View attachment 3983184

I ended up picking another cw for the Iris mousseline and I had tried on 7 out of the 8 cws. I did not notice the same issue on the other cws that I tried.

Wow weN84, those flaws are terrible! I'm rather amazed at the apparent lack of quality control; those flaws are what I would expect from a sale item (at significantly less than full price).

 

[textilegirl]

Mousseline friends, many of you who have been following this thread for years have heard me blather on endlessly about how much I love mousselines. They are my favorite, favorite thing Hermes makes. Even the ones I've had the longest still make my heart pitter-patter when I pull them out. So I'm not thrilled to need to post a rant/lament/PSA here regarding the quality of current mousselines.

Everyone, please please please, if you are buying mousselines from this season or 2017, CHECK YOUR MOUSSELINES THOROUGHLY in the boutique, held up in a decently-lit area, before taking them home.

Yesterday I received a stole I was very excited about, the Savana Dance in a fabulous absinthe green with peach accents. It was sent brand-new from the web shop and shipped to store. Having had negative experiences with the quality of last summer's mousselines, I asked the SA to unfurl it for my inspection. I was horrified to see around a dozen pulls and fractures in the fabric. We unfurled a different colorway that the boutique had. Same thing, albeit slightly less pervasive. See the pics for a couple of examples of what I mean.

These would be easy enough to miss if you weren't looking carefully, but they should NOT be present in a brand-new mousseline. Frankly, my oldest mousselines wouldn't even show these types of problems even if you ran over them with a mack truck. Post-2007, sure, some of them will eventually show little slubs in the fabric, which look a bit like the textured areas of shantung silk. But nothing like this, and pulls don't occur in any of them up to summer 2017 without something actually snagging on them.

What changed in summer 2017? According to a lovely SA who is the scarf buyer for her boutique, Hermes has decided to produce the mousselines using thinner threads. Supposedly people complained that they were "too hot." I have my suspicions about the corporate rationale for this change, but whether or not they really changed thing at customers' insistence, I can't see it as anything but a change for the worse. Mousselines I saw last summer without pulls, even brand-new from the cellophane, were the exception, not the rule. My Iris mousseline is fragile in the extreme, and has to be babied to survive being knotted. When packed, it emerges with creases and crinkles looking sad and squashed.

Do I freak out when one of my mousselines gets a slub or a pull because I've worn it many many times, or when I've done something to cause a problem with my own carelessness? Certainly not. Do I think it's unacceptable for Hermes to sell mousselines that are so inherently frail that they couldn't even survive packing and transit to the customer without showing damage? Oh most certainly I do. And my tolerance for declining quality varies inversely with the ever-steeper prices that H is charging. If I didn't know they could do better, I wouldn't be stomping my foot over this-- but I have 34 pre-2017 mousselines in my drawers that say otherwise.

Check your moussies, everyone! No judgement here if you find a bunch of pulls and decide to buy one anyway. If anyone understands being overcome by the beauty of the mousselines, it's me. I myself am asking H to send me a pristine replacement for the Savana stole, even though I know that seeing so many new mousselines with these problems means they will not wear with the hardiness of the older mousselines. But I absolutely won't buy one that is damaged from the get-go, and if customer comments are what drive H's changes to the mousselines, this customer has a lot to tell them! If you've experienced this same issue, do let your SA and H customer service know. I would hate to see the mousseline format (which has dwindled from two seasons and four formats to one season and two formats) die out entirely, and I do believe that if people have bad experiences with their durability, they'll cease to sell and H will kill them completely.

Okay, rant/advisory notice over! I promise I'll make up for this grouchy post with pretty pics of some new-to-me (but older issue!) additions soon.

View attachment 3981672 View attachment 3981674[/QUOTE

calexandre, thank you for this excellent post; I'd noticed the thinness on one of the Savanah Dance stoles but as the cw was not to my liking I didn't ask to see the whole thing. I guess I'm glad I passed but I'm sorely disappointed to hear this news.

 

[seasounds]

So sorry to report that this lovely has flaws. She came out of the cellophane wrapping in front of me. I wore her prior to these new concerns being raised. I’ve decided to just enjoy her.

 

[scarf1]

View attachment 3983291 View attachment 3983292 So sorry to report that this lovely has flaws. She came out of the cellophane wrapping in front of me. I wore her prior to these new concerns being raised. I’ve decided to just enjoy her.

Oh no, I will have to check mine now...

Ok, just checked. I bought the confessions in December, it is fine. Then 2 Savana dance via the web. Thankfully, they are both fine as well.

 

[calexandre]

Seasounds, it’s simply gorgeous on you, and all anyone else will ever see is a dreamy lavender cloud complimenting your skin tone. So, as much as I’m an advocate for holding H quality control to account as much as possible to see to it that we moussie-lovers get to treasure our pieces for as long as possible, I also think your resolve to just enjoy wearing them is the best of all responses to any flaws uncovered post-return-window, whether those flaws result from manufacturing or after years of happy wearings.

View attachment 3983291 View attachment 3983292 So sorry to report that this lovely has flaws. She came out of the cellophane wrapping in front of me. I wore her prior to these new concerns being raised. I’ve decided to just enjoy her.

 

[seasounds]

Seasounds, it’s simply gorgeous on you, and all anyone else will ever see is a dreamy lavender cloud complimenting your skin tone. So, as much as I’m an advocate for holding H quality control to account as much as possible to see to it that we moussie-lovers get to treasure our pieces for as long as possible, I also think your resolve to just enjoy wearing them is the best of all responses to any flaws uncovered post-return-window, whether those flaws result from manufacturing or after years of happy wearings.

Thank you for your compliment! My eyes are blue and I have blond(ish) hair, so this CW really is perfect for me. Living in Florida, the thinness of the moussie is a plus. I will wear her in the carefree spirit of the design itself and not worry about snags from jewelry, etc.

 

[Meta]

Wow weN84, those flaws are terrible! I'm rather amazed at the apparent lack of quality control; those flaws are what I would expect from a sale item (at significantly less than full price).

Yet I've purchased 3 mousselines from their sale, one of which was a design from SS17 during the Summer sale last year. All the mousselines were flawless, as one would expect brand new at full price with tags attached.

I noticed a pull on one of the CSGM at the sale upon checkout at the cashiers and decided to decline the item. I pointed out the defect to the sale staff and it was to my knowledge pulled from the sale and not returned to the sale inventory. So these mousselines are just

 

[werner]

I spoke to my SA today....we're in different cities...she and the SM pulled all their mousselines and found that all but one had at least one flaw. All of the defected were pulled. I suspect this is going to happen at several boutiques, not just in the US. Will be interesting to see what happens. Another shout-out to calexandre for bringing this to our attention.