HERMÈS MAISON

Vogue Living takes a tour of the intriguing installation and talks to the visionaries behind it.

Looking down from the mezzanine level of Milan’s La Pelota cavernous events space into the Hermès Maison exhibition was more than a little surreal. Visitors moved through a dimly lit labyrinth of dry-stone walls, which skilfully guided them on a mysterious journey of discovery — around each corner, exquisitely crafted pieces from Hermès’ new home collection were cleverly revealed, each representing the brand’s spotlight on raw, natural materials. Watching the attendees wind their way through the fence-height walls was mesmerising enough; actually navigating the maze to savour the details of each design up close, juxtaposed against this earthy setting, was borderline magical.

Ed Barber (on left) and Jay Osgerby of Barber & Osgerby were among the artisans at Hermès this year, showcasing two contrasting lamps: the delicate Halo, made of porcelain, and the robust granite Héctate, named for the Greek goddess who symbolises the new moon. We spoke to the designers as well as the creators of Hermès Maison, joint deputy artistic directors Charlotte Macaux Perelman and

Alexis Fabry. THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THIS YEAR’S THEME Charlotte Macaux Perelman: Every year we underline one of the values important for

Hermès. Last year was colour. This year it is natural materials and their link with nature. At Hermès we really love natural materials like leather, wood and stone. And we love the fact that craftsmen, as human beings, take these natural materials and work on them.

Alexis Fabry: From Hermès’ point of view, it’s interesting to take something as simple and humble as a dry-stone wall, which is used to delimit fields in Ireland, and to present it as something really beautiful and to actually improve upon its beauty — because Hermès, after all, has access to all the richest and most sophisticated materials. In this case it’s going back to the humility of the stone, and we believe this is a personal challenge, too. BARBER & OSGERBY ON THEIR LONGTIME COLLABORATION WITH HERMÈS

Ed Barber: When you work with Hermès it’s about a higher level of detail. It’s extreme quality; almost a fanaticism… a little bit of madness. The other thing that’s quite unusual about them is they don’t give up. There’s always this passion to realise an idea.

Jay Osgerby: Our relationship with Hermès has been quite long standing. The projects have been very much connected to the elements, using bronze, granite, porcelain — things we take from the earth. For me, Hermès is one of the few companies who can still legitimately nurture handmade craft. Without a house like Hermès, many skills would just become extinct. It’s essential we keep those traditions alive. WHAT THE DESIGNERS WERE AIMING TO ACHIEVE WITH THEIR LAMPS

Barber: The materials are a play on contrasts and this idea of density [with the granite] and translucency [of the porcelain]. It’s really interesting that we ended up with two products that are the opposite of each other: the Héctate is a monolith — it’s very powerful and very heavy — and the Halo, which is very light and fragile. Predominantly it’s about reflecting light so both lamps have a powerful light source that reflects off each surface. THE SLIGHTLY MAD THEORY BEHIND THE HÉCTATE LAMP

Osgerby: We started working on the porcelain lamp two or three years ago, and then we came up with the idea of using granite. After making the sample, we fell in love with it. It’s a very special type of black granite only found in Zimbabwe with a similar make-up to the moon. My theory is that Earth was once much bigger, right? So shortly after that, in kind of celestial terms, Earth was hit by a fast-moving body, another sort of moon. At that point two things happened: one, the molten mantle of the planet was broken off and created our moon; and at the same time, the impact turned the earth to 23.5 degrees, which gives us seasons. If that impact hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have the moon, we wouldn’t have seasons and we wouldn’t have weather… Barber: …so we wouldn’t actually be in this show right now…

Osgerby: …and at that moment those elements were taken from Zimbabwe and were left on the moon. So there’s this common relationship between elements in that lamp and the moon.

Barber: So we can thank the collision, otherwise we wouldn’t have the lamp! WHY THE HALO LAMP IS ALSO SO SPECIAL

Osgerby: We are really at the limits of scale for porcelain, because it goes into the mould as a liquid and then it gradually dries out. We’ve struggled to even achieve this size — I don’t think anyone could have made anything bigger in porcelain. hermes.com; barberosgerby.com