A luxury brand is nothing without its artisans.
Inside a big tent in the middle of Union Square
Park in San Francisco, in celebration of its 175th anniversary, the
house of Hermès hosted a free event for everyone interested in craft, fashion,
style, and heritage to have a hands on experience. For five days, the
horse-carriage brand, with its authentic orange color and 10-year wait lists on
the most coveted celebrity-named handbags is celebrating the best thing they
have – their métiers and craftsmen.
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| Leatherworker |
About nine stations for different Hermès products
took place, in which Lyon-based artisans worked side by side to an English translator,
and pretty much gave the audience a tutorial of what goes on behind the scene
of the charming boutiques we all drool over.
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| Tie marker |
The art of sewing, threading, polishing,
framing, beading, cutting, and printing are no joke to the house. Artisans
usually have to go though a 5 year apprentice period before they can actually
be hired by the house, and be the experts of crafts like gilding glasses, making
watches, and sewing silk ties by hand – a process that can take 20 minutes
after the printed tie has been cut.
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| Watch station |
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| Gilding |
Some of the most coveted stations were the one
from the Leatherworker Dominique Michaux, who was sewing a blue leather Jypsière bag (a process that takes 20
hours to complete, and only one artisan for each bag), a unisex product for huntsmen
and women on the go. But certainly the showstopper was the silk printing
station where one artisan printed 14 silkscreens over the 90cmx90cm silk scarf
square. The process lasted about 90 mins. Silk printer Kamel Hamadou took the
audience over the process of printing scarves, a craft that takes about 6 years
to learn, and more time when it comes to fabrics like chashmere. Hamadou’s
French charm gave him enough patience to respond all kinds of questions from newcomer
visitors, and talk about the creative process for scarves. In order to present
the customer with 10 new designs each season, the developing process lasts two
years from beginning to end, and evolves, designers, engravers, colorists,
communications between the Paris headquarters and Hermès New York workshop.
Classic scarves continue to be produced, and ordered each season by each
boutique’s buyers. They can produce Asian pastels and a Brazilian jungle
explosion for the same design.
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| Silk screen demonstation |
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| Scarves engraving |
Another popular station was Faustine Pancin’s
gem setting. Women can’t stay away from some diamond bling! The specialized gem
setter has the task to set diminute diamonds over the whole contour of the best
seller “Collier the chien” (dog-collar) bracelet. She used dentist tools and
her own saliva to catch tiny diamonds and set them on specific wholes – as
there are five different gem sizes –, before securing it with the same metallic
structure. Viewers got the chance to see her in action and look through the
microscope.
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| Gem Setting station |
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| Twin-set lining station |
Another insider tip, the brown, pink and orange
scarf required one silkscreen to print the Hermès name and the design’s one in
a specific tone of dark brown. Mr. Hamadou stressed on the fact that there are
no special orders at Hermès. Each scarf has a 10-color palette option. However,
no queen jubilee, or any special celebrity can order an exclusive print for him
or herself. See, "when you buy Hermès, you don’t buy the signature, you
buy qualité," and its the same
for everyone.
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