At Home With Hermès

Now that working from home has become a norm, Hermès proposes creating a space that helps you thrive through a concept called biophilic design

HAVING CREATED THE ULTIMATE leather status symbol for the wellheeled, and won hearts by employing texture and colour with equal aplomb for its scarves and garments, French luxury house Hermès is extending its deft touch with materials into a new stratosphere with an entire lifestyle collection.

Hermès may have its roots in making saddlery, but it has since demonstrated expertise in everything from art objects and upholstery fabrics to armchairs and coffee tables. Since 2011, homeware has been another cornerstone for the maison.

The Language Of Materials

The new collection of Hermès Home decorative objects delves into the language of materials and explores how natural textures and fi nishes can bring a sense of physicality into the home. At the same time, it lifts a curtain to reveal the world of artisanry, which has long been taken for granted.

A tactile experience with craft is also known to benefit well-being. Furniture made with natural materials and unique expertise offer a modern aesthetic principle called “biophilic design”. While the concept is contemporary, the practice of biophilic design has been seen in architecture from as far back as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

First introduced by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, biophilia is defi ned as the “passionate love of life and of all that is alive... whether in a person, a plant, an object or an idea.”

From the welcoming softness of a seat crafted using paper microfibres, to the elegance of white cashmere felt interwoven with golden threads, or the purity of a cut- stone table, biophilic principles have the benefit of acquainting us with nature while we “work from home” in our current self-isolating reality. It reduces stress, enhances creativity and improves our well-being.

Extraordinary Things

Made of beechwood and then coated with a unique compound containing cellulose microfibres made in Puglia (the birthplace of papier mâché), the Sillage d’Hermès armchair is an organically shaped seat inspired by “faraway places”. Its generous proportions have been designed by architects at Studio Mumbai. Striking the

A STUDY IN LIFESTYLE, HERMÈS HOME IS A LIFE LIVED LARGER.

perfect balance between material innovation and ancestral knowhow, this robust yet sensual totem armchair ‒ hand-varnished and hand-painted ‒ encourages an intimate relationship with the material. It is wabi- sabi at its fi nest. What better way to incorporate natural elements into one’s living space?

Storied Objects

The pieces are designed to be touched, the H Dye hand-woven Plaids are a perfect backdrop for colours and patterns. Glorifying the extraordinary variations of artisan shades interwoven with vertical stripes. Unique geometric combinations with flamboyant nuances reveal an H, the signature of Hermès know-how and its eternal soul.

Even the Chromatic basket, too elevated to be used as a waste paper basket, creates a dialogue between leather and wicker, and in turn two areas of expertise ‒ leatherwork and basketry ‒ to reveal an unexpected interplay between colours, objects and livelihoods. It demonstrates how an everyday object is relatable to the world on different levels.

There are items to enliven table service, encourage discourse or punctuate a space visually, such as the Hippomobile set. Then there are the jockey silk prints, transformed into graphic and colourful friezes, which now appear on cups and plates of a porcelain service.

Another favourite is the Lignage d’Hermes stone table. Impassive in its lifelessness, yet expressive in its artisanship, it is human and material, black and white, simplicity and solidity. Similarly, the blue stone table from Hainaut, Belgium, conceived by the same designers of the Sillage d’Hermès, tells a story of an encounter between raw aesthetics and delicate know-how.

There are so many more objects in the Hermès Home collection, each with its own story of discovery and wonder, or tenacity and respect for the materials and the artisans. There are also items in the collection that have a more direct bearing on our comfort, such as the soft touch of a Williamstown quilted bed cover. Its patterns are reinterpreted on white cashmere using only exquisite golden thread and expert know-how. The American artist Carson Converse ‒ an artist- designer who blurs the lines between craft, fi ne art and design with her fibre art ‒ used a quilting technique and embroidered Gianpaolo Pagni’s designs inspired by collectible images from his childhood. It’s classic Italian artistry meets French luxury.

And as twilight envelopes you, the light from the Sarazine table lamp accompany you till you are ready for slumber. A lampshade made of writing paper and natural cowhide leather, it is beautifully saddle- stitched following the methods of Jean-Michel Sarazin, an artisan from Hermès’ trunk workshop. He ingeniously channelled the emblematic materials and know-how of the maison into the design of the table lamp.

The pieces all offer a study in art, culture and people. And indeed, Hermès Home aims to let you get more out of using them.

DESIGNED TO BE TOUCHED.