You Can Hermes That

Inside Axel de Beaufort’s workshop, where anything from a skateboard to a classic car can become an Hermès fantasy

- James Tarmy

In a suburb outside Paris, past a locked metal gate, two security guards, and a pair of key-card doors, there is a large, simple white room. Inside, more than a dozen elite artisans work quietly at messy desks covered with swatches of pebbled leather. Their skills are so highly sought-after that photographs of their faces aren’t allowed, and publicizing their names is strictly forbidden.

This is the Sur-mesure atelier at Hermès, where the wildest luxury fantasy can become an exquisite reality. Here, car interiors and motorcycles are decked out in Hermès calfskin. Fishing poles are made to order, plus boxing gloves and polo bags, all with the signature subtle handiwork of the French fashion house. A nearby showroom has a foosball table, a surfboard, and a range of door handles, should a client desire to clutch Hermès leather at every turn. Don’t look for heavy branding, though; a $2,975 Surmesure skateboard is splashed with seemingly every color but the company’s trademark orange.

Women around the world might dream of owning an Hermès bag; Sur-mesure (literally, “made to measure”) is for people who dream bigger than what a retail store can offer. When that happens, the client is referred by their local store manager to the atelier. “First we analyze the requirements,” says Axel de Beaufort, the atelier’s design director. Outfitting the interior of a private jet can take much longer than, say, making a pingpong paddle, but the process remains the same. The workshop provides a financial estimate after a month and an artistic proposal about two months later. When Hermès quotes a price, de Beaufort says, there’s no wiggle room. “We don’t negotiate.”