ardmore founder Fée halsted collaborates with hermès
The Ardmore founder and Hermès collaborator gets real
Dream, believe and achieve.
I fell in love with an Hermès scarf as a student. I was shocked at how expensive it was but I had to have it so I swallowed hard and paid for it. This scarf was pinned to my wall at varsity and it inspired many of my earlier artworks. I dreamt that one day I would have Ardmore designs on an Hermès silk scarf.
Dare a little.
I arrived in Paris to exhibit our pieces at a ceramic fair called Les Journées de la Céramique. I didn’t have many props to show off the pieces but my hostess had beautiful orange Hermès boxes that I knew would work perfectly. My daughter, Megan, was worried that it might not be the right thing to do, especially as we were in Paris, so I covered the logo with our artworks. At the fair, there was a lady admiring our works who commented on the use of the boxes. It so happened that she worked for Hermès as a jewellery designer and set up our first meeting.
Trust your instinct.
When we designed our first scarves for Hermès, we submitted two scarf layouts but they were only interested in the design that featured elephants, giraffes, zebra and crocodiles. Just before my daughter and I left for London, I said to her: take the leopard and monkey one. Today, ‘Savanna Dance’ has featured on silk, women’s apparel, jewellery, bathing costumes, beach towels and now even skateboards and surfboards.
There is power in African design.
We are surrounded by so much natural beauty and artistry – even Hermès loves the freshness and innovative designs. We have used Zulu symbolism with the amasumpa motif that sings and celebrates our culture and life force. This signature motif is seen in the circular pattern on the ‘Savanna Dance’ scarf boarder.
Keep on growing your skills.
From Hermès we learnt the value of hand-drawn and painted design elements that we developed with our ‘Zambezi’ fabric collection. Our first fabric collection was designed on a computer with vectors, but with the newly learnt skills we were able to create fabrics that reflected the motifs on our ceramic pieces.
Share your success.
I have always loved growing and nurturing the artists of Ardmore as well as young students. It has been very special for me to share this experience with all three my children. I urged my youngest daughter, 16 at the time, to present to Hermès at the initial meeting and my eldest daughter, Catherine, has been influential in creating the look and feel for both the Hermès scarves and the ‘Zambezi’ fabric collection. I am also very proud of my son, who runs the business side of Ardmore and is dedicated to continuing its legacy.