Some of my favorite Hermès designs are those inspired by India. France declared 1985-6 The Year of India and Hermès issued a series of fantastic designs featuring designs inspired by the art, culture and history of India. I own three of the four Indian inspired scarves designs from the 1985 Year of India…
One of these was Cathy Latham’s India which prominently features the goddess of wealth and prosperity, Lakshmi. The deity is surrounded by her court and India’s national emblems, the elephant, peacock, and lotus appear on the four corners.
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Loic Dubigeon’s Fantaisies Indiennes, also from 1985, is an exuberant tribute to India and its people. A tree of life inspired by the façades from the city of Mandawa appears in the center panel. The border is adorned with a parade of horses, elephants and real and fictional historical characters.
Michel Duchene’s 1985 Chasse en Inde took its inspiration from an 18th century tapestry belonging to the Indian ambassador in Paris. The imagery features a hunt scene.
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Hermès subsequently declared a thematic Year of India in 2008. I own four designs from that year. First, Benoit-Pierre Emery’s Indian Dust. This illustration depicts beautiful patterns in a pointillist style of dots that recall the colored pigments used during India’s yearly Holi celebrations. These dots create patterns of paisley and lotus flowers.
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Virginie Jamin’s 2008 Dancing Pearls depicts a string of beads on strings swaying as they unravel. The Hermès description states that the design was inspired by a story the artist dreamed up in which an Indian woman leaves her country on a boat carrying with her only a pearl necklace. During a storm at sea her necklace begins to spin and unravel and finally she is left with only one pearl
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Another 2008 Year of India design is the very special Carré Kantha whose design and patterns are inspired by Bengali traditional kantha cloth. Kantha cloth is a classical type of embroidered fabric produced by cultures the Indian states along the Bay of Bengal. The term “kantha” simply means “patched cloth” alluding to the practice of creating decorated blankets out of scraps that are embroidered together using a straight, running stitch. I owned a green mousseline Carre Kantha and just got this anthracite CW a couple of weeks ago.
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Another 2008 Year of India design is Aline Honore’s Coupons Indiens. The design depicts a layout of various Indian textile swatches creating a dynamic collage
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Annie Faivre created Le Jardin de la Maharani as a tribute to the Maharani of Jaipur, an enlightened woman who devoted her life to supporting and defending the women of India beginning in the 1940s. She became a Member of Parliament, elected by the largest majority in Indian history. Since she loved gardens and flowers, this design depicting a stylized garden in traditional Mughal design.
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Henri d’Origny’s Arabesques is inspired by the elaborately adorned Indian textiles that feature rich embroideries in swirling patterns called arabesques. These ornate designs often adorn the borders of saris
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As in her Coupons Indiens, Aline Honore drew inspiration from Indian textiles for her Fleurs d’Indiennes. The design is a tribute to the beauty, variety and creativity of Indian textiles, presenting a composition of fabric patterned swatches shaped like flowers. The patterns are inspired by the painted or printed cottons produced in India at the end of the sixteenth century and that became widely popular in Europe. This is pic is from a week ago when I wore my Fleurs d’Indiennes to a wonderful art exhibition featuring contemporary jewelry designers.
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And, on to the Moghul Empire and Persian carpets. Pierre Marie’s Tapis Persans is a modern interpretation of historical motifs that features geometric shapes, decorated medallions, paisley, arabesques and stylized flora present in traditional and antique Persian carpets. The Hermès description states that some rugs were named for the painters who depicted them in their work… “the distinctive, so-called Lotto carpets, with their dark red ground and bold arabesque designs, are named for the artist Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556). This carré presents a particularly fine example, inspired by a prayer rug from northern India.” Pierre Marie was inspired by the Indian archives at the Museum of Textile Printing in Mulhouse, France. This pic is from last Sunday when I wore this one to a Seraphic Fire ancient music concert
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Lastly, I would like to share a couple of designs inspired by the history and art of Ancient Egypt. Both Cathy Latham’s Egypte and Joachim Metz’s Tresors du Nil celebrate the amazing ancient treasures of Egypt and the Nile found in early 20th century excavations and which included treasures inside Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.
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Love this one @Cookiefiend!
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. Cent Plis de Miao depicts a skirt traditionally worn by tribeswomen from the Miao culture. The third picture is from an exhibit on Miao clothing and jewelry at the Minneapolis Institute of Art a few years ago.
