It always starts with a question.
What if you dared to hand-stitch saddles for horses?
What if you dared to craft handbags entirely by hand?
What if you dared to print on both sides of a silk carré?
The house of Hermès, like any legacy maison, has thrived from generation to generation from its ability to constantly move forward. “There are two legs at Hermès,” shares artistic director Pierre AlexisDumas. “One is innovation, and the other, tradition. To walk is to lose balance as you shift from one leg to the other. That is, you have to take risks. But the risk is necessary if you want to progress.”
For 10 years, the Hermès silk ateliers have been trying to find a way to print on both sides of a silk scarf. Since 1937, silk carrés have only been coloured on one side until the dye seeped through to the other. However, the coloured side was always more vibrant than the underside. As the artistic directors of Hermès silk wanted to preserve the delicate translucency of a classic Hermès scarf, simply sewing two carrés together or using a thicker silk fabric was not a solution. To print on both sides required a new approach—a certain deftness of hand so that the dye merely ‘kissed’ the silk as opposed to seeping through—which effectively required an unlearning of techniques that the maison had mastered for decades. But finally, after years of testing, Hermès has unlocked the secret and is debuting its double-printed scarves this spring/summer 2020 season.
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