Home Comforts

The 2021-2022 Hermés Collection for the home is made to be touched. The featured objects, ranging from lamps and baskets to armchairs and tea sets, are the result of expert craftsmanship and high technical prowess, and – rather like works of art – are imbued with the desire to enhance their user’s relationship with the routine and every day in their environment. Each piece is made using raw, natural materials, with texture to the forefront – whether it is the embrace-like softness of a cashmere plaid or the solid and smooth sturdiness of a stone table. It is all about connecting the hand and the material, emphasizing how the relationship between the two enriches and builds our conception of “home”.

One notable element of the collection is the baskets, reminiscent of a summer’s day in the south of France, of sun-warmed picnics and lazy lounging by the beach, all without stepping a foot outside the house. The collection’s bottle basket harks back to the art of braiding plant fibers, a practice continued by only a few craftsmen in France today. Hermes translates their artisanal knowledge into a more modem approach, fashioning a basket made of woven wicker and bull calf leather, complete with two Intervalle crystal-stemmed glasses that are ideal for a balmy evening cocktail. Other baskets in the collection, fashioned for more general use, employ the same material and textural interplay between leather and wicker, but with the added enhancement of bold colors to complement the rest of the collection’s palette.

In keeping with the natural theme, animals too make quirky appearances in the pieces. The Tigre bayadére plaids, designed by Glanpaolo Pagni and screen-printed onto 100 percent cashmere, feature bold striped patterns in warm hues. One vertical strip features the phases of the moon, from behind which an intricately sketched tiger figure peeks out shyly. Meanwhile, sets of dessert plates In extra-white porcelain, also designed by Pagni, contain playful horse figures constructed out of geometric lines and patterns. Pagni had Initially spotted horse engravings in the Emile Hermes collection and used them 45 @ point of inspiration for his plate designs. He then used the prints of the Jockeys’ silks and transformed them into modernized, vibrant friezes for his horses to ‘wear; a colorful element that recurs as a motif elsewhere, such as on the crockery sets. The concept, directly translated from high fashion to the home, brings a sense of play and even light-hearted mischievousness to a porcelain service.

Moving onto larger furniture items, the Sillage d’Hermes Is an armchair designed by architects at Studio Mumbai. Provided with cashmere cushions, the armchair Is constructed in such a way as to evoke a feeling of travel or the experience of a faraway place without actually moving, rather like getting lost in a particularly transfixing work of literature. The chair is made of wood, with a unique coating: compound with cellulose fibers. Seventy percent of the coating is made of recycled materials from Puglia in Italy, which was where paper-maché was first made in the 16th century. In perfect accompaniment to the Sillage dHermes is the Sarazine, a table lamp that is plum for late-night reads or journalling, even poetically so, as the lampshade Is made of actual writing paper.
An artisan in the celebrated Hermes luggage workshop, designer Jean-Michel Sarazin also uses saddle-stitched cowhide leather to complete the structure of the lamp, which Is available in both small and large sizes.

Every item in the 2021-2022 Hermes Collection embodies the timeless skill, impact and expression of the human hand, the result of supremely crafted artistry. The Intention Is for the resulting pieces to be enjoyed, cherished and touched, effecting a physical exchange between the hand of the maker and that of the consumer, connecting the two via the materials and sensations that nature has given us since the beginning of time.