Billed as, ‘the
secret language of the Hermès ateliers’,
the Festival des Métiers declares
the French house to speak but one language: the language of luxury. While
‘luxury’ finds itself affixed to anything and everyone these days, Hermès has unequivocally
defined understated luxury since 1837.
Like a travelling
circus coming to town, Festival
des Métiers is a coup de goût of spectacle and magnificence that
arrives in London from China, before touring the Continent. Craftspeople from
across France and Switzerland come together in a contemporary and interactive
makeshift atelier under a canopy of trademark-orange wires and spotlighting,
designed by Paola Navone, to perform their unparalleled craftsmanship for all
to admire. 10 different crafts are being showcased at Chelsea’s Saatchi Gallery
spanning leather handbags, fine-jewellery, silk and timepieces.
In a defiant
act against counterfeit culture, the specialist craftspeople reveal their
practice tête-à-têtes with visitors at their workstations; the use of a
special glue to stretch silk flat onto the printing bed; the process of
constructing a tie with only a thread and needle, and the importance of a
steady hand for a one-chance stroke when using platinum at €4000 for a few
hundred millilitres.
Having
recently recorded soaring profits in 2012 from its 364 worldwide boutiques,
numbers are just as important in the boardroom as they are in the atelier. From
its Parisian head office at 24 Rue
du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, artwork is selected and
consequently interpreted by in-house illustrators to reduce complex images into
monochrome lines and shading that can take up to 2000 hours to complete before
it can be sent to be screen printed, as well as entering into the archives of
timeless design. 50 are the maximum number of gauze screens – relative to the
number of colours required - that are involved to make a signature silk scarf. 900ºC
is the temperature achieved to set the first brushstroke of a male tiger’s
fleshy pink nose on a porcelain change tray before an outline can be transferred
to the rest of the tray by hand. A silk garment requires 2 threads for the sabre
artisan to cut away and transform a two-dimensional surface into a silk velvet
relief. Hermès
is the only luxury house left that continues to sabrage by hand, providing a
bespoke service on ready to wear items and silk scarves that require several
days for completion. Executed by a sole artisan, this fading skill is currently
being taught to a handful of apprentices to preserve the traditions and values
that Hermès
continues to master across all its ateliers with finesse.
Go behind the scenes of ultimate luxury with this photo series (below) taken on the opening day...
Festival des Métiers runs to 27th May 2013 at Saatchi Gallery, London between 10am to 6pm - for more information visit hermes.com
Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York's Square
King's Road
London
SW3 4RY
