Hermès Puts Its Painstaking, Artisanal Processes Front and Center With Live Demonstrations in a Traveling Pop-UpA highly-trained Hermès artisan in the intricate process of scarf dyeing. Photo: William Jess Laird, courtesy of Hermès.
Indeed, the itinerary for last week’s press tour included a visit to the Detroit Achievement Academy, a free charter school to which Hermès has provided grants and art supplies. The third-graders were making kaleidoscopic butterflies out of gorgeous silk scarf remnants. When asked why they called them “bird savers,” they explained that they were to be hung in the school’s windows, to prevent birds from splatting against the glass of the new modern extension being built.
The site is divided amongst the house’s métiers. At one station, an artisan was meditatively lost in her work. She glanced at a finished vase and then dabbed at her in-process one with a fine brush to match the patterns. It looked exact, but on closer inspection there were ever-so-slight, barely perceptible nuances, a human touch that made each distinctive. Other sections demonstrated the stitching of a Kelly bag, or leather glove-making.