Artist Info
Hermès
The Paris-based, luxury leather firm Hermès was founded in 1837, by Thierry Hermès, a German-Protestant immigrant. In the beginning, the company crafted finely-wrought carriage harnesses and bridles. Today, Hermès makes the most coveted women’s handbags in the world. Hermès also produces women’s clothing (by designers such as Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier), men’s clothing, perfumes, and other lifestyle goods. Yet Hermès has remained a family business.
In 1880, Thierry's son, Charles-Émile Hermès moved the shop to 24 Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where it remains today. Hermès began to produce saddles. The founder’s grandsons, Adolphe and Émile-Maurice, added a new accessories collection. Hermès introduced its first leather handbags in 1922. By the end of the decade, the company’s first women's apparel collection debuted, and in the 1930s, Hermès produced some of its most recognized original goods, such as the sac à dépêches (later renamed the Kelly bag). Especially significant was the Hermès printed silk scarf, which was first introduced in 1937.
After World War II, Hermès continued to expand and introduce new products, such as the perfume Calèche. Sales of the Kelly bag took off after Princess Grace appeared with one on the cover of Life magazine in 1956. However, by the 1970s, Hermès began losing ground to competitors who opted for cheaper materials and means of production. While maintaining its commitment to meticulous craftsmanship, Hermès carefully redirected its energies and by the late 1970s, it was noted that "much of what bears the still-discreet Hermès label changed from the object of an old person's nostalgia to the subject of young peoples' dreams." Hermès introduced its Birkin bag in 1984. Like the Kelly and numerous other Hermès handbags, the Birkin has become a classic, so coveted as to be nearly unobtainable. Not only does one bag cost tens of thousands of dollars, there is a long waiting list to purchase it.
For the past two decades, the Hermès clothing lines, while always subtle, have become more abstract and architectural. In 1997, Martin Margiela was hired to design the women’s line, bringing “a disciplined rigor and sly wit” to the company. He was followed in 2003 by Jean Paul Gaultier, whose audacious designs included fringed cashmere coats fitted like horse blankets that had been thrown around the shoulders and belted. In 2010, Christophe Lemaire was named head designer, followed by Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski in 2014.
