In Your Wildest Dreams

If you can imagine it, chances are Hermès can make it. JAMIE HUCKBODY is transported into a hidden world of bespoke make-believe where private-jet interiors and one-of-a-kind surfboards are all in a day’s work

- Jamie Huckbody

You could easily be forgiven for thinking that an Hermès Birkin bag is the ultimate totem of French luxury, such is its unique combination of patrician pedigree, nonchalant coolness and expert craftsmanship. But what if I told you it was just the tip of the Hermès iceberg, and that the real goodies are to be found — more often than not without a trace of house branding — in its little-known atelier called Le Sur-Mesure?

“Hermès is a company that has existed for nearly two centuries because it’s a visionary company,” says Axel de Beaufort, design and engineering director of Hermès’s department of special projects. “Let me show you the workshops where the magic happens.”

Like the Gallic equivalent of James Bond’s MI6 quartermaster, Q, de Beaufort ushers me into the hangar-sized laboratory of ideas where hyper-specialised artisans bring the wildest desires of Hermès clients to life. There’s a big colourful kite made from parachute silk and printed with an iconic Hermès scarf design; the coolest of roller boots (the shoe component made from a detachable pair of Hermès sneakers, no less), and an entire section of a private-jet interior, complete with window, specially designed leather seat and walls lined in Hermès’s signature oat-coloured canvas. “It’s the first time we’ve used the Hermès canvas on the walls of a plane,” de Beaufort says, dashing over to another workbench to inspect two big weekend bags awaiting client approval. “These were made to fit perfectly into the back of the client’s Porsche. Nice, non?”