November 29, 2010
Hermès Reaching Out to China and Beyond
By SUZY MENKES
PARIS Looking down across the flat landscape, three huts, woven from organic ash wood, create a comfort zone for fashions wandering nomads.
A bed, lapped by a soft blanket, looks so inviting that there is an urge to lie down and contemplate the surroundings: the mosaic of an original Art Deco swimming pool; the restored wrought iron balconies; a carpet fuzzy with a deep pile pattern; the silken scarves and supple leather saddles asking to be stroked.
The magical aura Hermès has created at its new 14,500-square-meter, or 15,800-square-foot store, on the Left Bank of Paris, is more than a flagship designed to capture the essence and the unique aesthetic of the leather goods company, founded in 1837.
Like other magnificent edifices built by luxury brands, the store is a way station on a new Silk Road, designed as a destination for shopping tourists, who increasingly come from China.
Patrick Thomas, president and chief executive of Hermès, says that the new project at 17 Rue de Sèvres is intended to draw local customers who might not make it to the landmark store on the other bank of the Seine. But the executive also says that visitors from Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as from China, already make up 4 to 5 percent of Paris shoppers and account for 17 percent of the companys fast-growing sales figures. There are 70 pan-Asia stores (excluding the 50 in Japan) double the 35 shops across France.
For local or global customers the message is the same: a unique store impregnated with authenticity.
I wanted a Hermès experience for people to come here and enjoy it, to have tea, read a book, buy flowers, says Pierre-Alexis Dumas, creative director, who also sees the store as a tribute to his late mother, Rena Dumas, whose RDAI architectural practice produced the striking design with its fluid, undulating shapes.
New to the store is its 40 percent focus on hearth and home, emphasized by the artistic Baptiste Pitou flower shop at the entrance and by the re-issue of streamlined furniture, first created by Jean-Michel Frank for Hermès in the 1930s. Furnishing fabrics are in the companys traditional neutral and saddle-brown colors, with the occasional stampede of horse patterns.
Significantly, the silk carpets, with their patina of soft colors and shadowy equestrian prints, are made by artisans in China who hand-weave the 155,000 knots, to the designs of the American artists Janis Provisor and Brad Davis.
The idea of global sourcing, as well as of an international clientele, but with an absolute identity and what Mr. Dumas calls the eternal values of his late father, is the essence of modern luxury.
But Mr Thomas prefers the word quality. In response to questions about the 17.1 percent stake acquired last month by stealth in the family-owned business by Bernard Arnault, the head of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the Hermès executive claiming that the family felt serene about the onslaught said: I dont think a house like Hermès is capable of surviving in a universe defined by money.
Yet money is the key to the quality products that extend from the leather goods, large and small, at the core of the brand, to clothes, accessories, shoes, fine jewelry and watches, as well as the tableware from china to cutlery. For all its low-key elegance, the store is a temple to the tasteful super-rich and an example of whisper-quiet wealth in a post-bling-bling era.
If Hermès were not above the door, the identity of the store would still be unquestionable. Even the bookshop looks as if it is grown from Hermès roots. The existence of this vast, made-over swimming pool endorses the power of the brick-and-mortar flagship in a digital age, offering a 3D experience from the scent of the flowers (and the fragrances) to the feel of fabrics.
For Mr. Thomas, the store is also a weapon to use to fight for Hermès as an independent entity.
It is good timing because it asserts the singularity and difference of Hermès, the executive said. The house has constantly proved that poetry and creativity are not incompatible with financial business.
Hermès Reaching Out to China and Beyond
By SUZY MENKES
PARIS Looking down across the flat landscape, three huts, woven from organic ash wood, create a comfort zone for fashions wandering nomads.
A bed, lapped by a soft blanket, looks so inviting that there is an urge to lie down and contemplate the surroundings: the mosaic of an original Art Deco swimming pool; the restored wrought iron balconies; a carpet fuzzy with a deep pile pattern; the silken scarves and supple leather saddles asking to be stroked.
The magical aura Hermès has created at its new 14,500-square-meter, or 15,800-square-foot store, on the Left Bank of Paris, is more than a flagship designed to capture the essence and the unique aesthetic of the leather goods company, founded in 1837.
Like other magnificent edifices built by luxury brands, the store is a way station on a new Silk Road, designed as a destination for shopping tourists, who increasingly come from China.
Patrick Thomas, president and chief executive of Hermès, says that the new project at 17 Rue de Sèvres is intended to draw local customers who might not make it to the landmark store on the other bank of the Seine. But the executive also says that visitors from Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as from China, already make up 4 to 5 percent of Paris shoppers and account for 17 percent of the companys fast-growing sales figures. There are 70 pan-Asia stores (excluding the 50 in Japan) double the 35 shops across France.
For local or global customers the message is the same: a unique store impregnated with authenticity.
I wanted a Hermès experience for people to come here and enjoy it, to have tea, read a book, buy flowers, says Pierre-Alexis Dumas, creative director, who also sees the store as a tribute to his late mother, Rena Dumas, whose RDAI architectural practice produced the striking design with its fluid, undulating shapes.
New to the store is its 40 percent focus on hearth and home, emphasized by the artistic Baptiste Pitou flower shop at the entrance and by the re-issue of streamlined furniture, first created by Jean-Michel Frank for Hermès in the 1930s. Furnishing fabrics are in the companys traditional neutral and saddle-brown colors, with the occasional stampede of horse patterns.
Significantly, the silk carpets, with their patina of soft colors and shadowy equestrian prints, are made by artisans in China who hand-weave the 155,000 knots, to the designs of the American artists Janis Provisor and Brad Davis.
The idea of global sourcing, as well as of an international clientele, but with an absolute identity and what Mr. Dumas calls the eternal values of his late father, is the essence of modern luxury.
But Mr Thomas prefers the word quality. In response to questions about the 17.1 percent stake acquired last month by stealth in the family-owned business by Bernard Arnault, the head of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the Hermès executive claiming that the family felt serene about the onslaught said: I dont think a house like Hermès is capable of surviving in a universe defined by money.
Yet money is the key to the quality products that extend from the leather goods, large and small, at the core of the brand, to clothes, accessories, shoes, fine jewelry and watches, as well as the tableware from china to cutlery. For all its low-key elegance, the store is a temple to the tasteful super-rich and an example of whisper-quiet wealth in a post-bling-bling era.
If Hermès were not above the door, the identity of the store would still be unquestionable. Even the bookshop looks as if it is grown from Hermès roots. The existence of this vast, made-over swimming pool endorses the power of the brick-and-mortar flagship in a digital age, offering a 3D experience from the scent of the flowers (and the fragrances) to the feel of fabrics.
For Mr. Thomas, the store is also a weapon to use to fight for Hermès as an independent entity.
It is good timing because it asserts the singularity and difference of Hermès, the executive said. The house has constantly proved that poetry and creativity are not incompatible with financial business.
