MAKING OF A METIER

At Hermès, Clémande Burgevin Blachman, the creative director of fashion accessories, strikes an artful truce between ergonomic design and timeless beauty.

- AKANKSHA KAMATI

An object is designed and brought into the world to do two thing. First, provide its wearer with the sheer satisfaction of looking at it, i.e. the transcendent joy experienced when an object is a reminder or a totem of more effervescent times. And the second, to serve its purpose—its basic need for existence, whatever that may be, big or small.

In the hallowed halls of Hermès’ fashion accessories métier—where its fashion jewellery, hats, and belts are made, both these functions are met, and a third is discovered. The honouring of the House’s codes and its long lasting legacy in the art of object-making, according to creative director of the pieces, Clémande Burgevin Blachman.

Burgevin Blachman’s rise to the chair in 2022 is one that is riddled with unlikely possibilities. She’s quick to say so herself. She did not study fashion, but literature. She left a career in publishing to follow her instinct into fashion. After a stint as the creative director of BETC, an advertising agency, where she reimagined the visual identity of the institutional and iconic Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Burgevin Blachman met Raf Simons and began working with him at Calvin Klein as the head of design for the home division. Here, she brought to life her early instruction in the world of objects learned close at home from her antique dealer and art loving parents. Followed by working with Pieter Mulier for his first two collections at Alaïa.