Oooh I'm so excited to finally tell you all about my adventures with Hermès, I've been putting it off for the last few weeks because I've been waiting for the opening of it's brand new and super exciting pop up shop (we'll get ti that more in full in a mere moment) before I talked you through the full details of my trip down Hermès lane and my masterclass in the silk scarf... And what a pretty chic masterclass it was!
So let's start from the top- A couple of weeks back now I got invited by the amazing team at Hermès to come down to Paris and pay them a visit in their HQ. I can't even begin to explain how much of a "pinch me" moment this was! Gah! Remember a while back when I spoke all about imposter syndrome and how I found myself in certain situations via blogging which made me suffer from it? Yeh well this was the cherry on the cake! Hermès, to me are at the top of their game when it comes to aspirational, high fashion luxury brands and to be invited by Hermès anywhere would be more than a dream come true... But for it to mean a trip to the ever beautiful Paris as well?! Little old me? Really? Quel Dommage! There must be some sort of a mistake!
But no, I wasn't dreaming and I did actually make my way down to Paris as invited quicker than you can say "silk scarves and Birkin bags, oh my! We started off our trip getting to grips with the incredible heritage behind Hermès with a visit to the private Emile Hermès Collection Museum located above Paris's flagship store. It was the most surreal experience to go from a small side street in Paris into various rooms which looked like they'd stood still in time since the brand was established back in 1837. It was truly magical to see all the history of the brand preserved in such a small space and the term "awe inspiring" has never been so apt and I'm not the only one who thinks so! In fact a lot of the Hermès scarf designers pay this collection a visit when they need creative encouragement. And a lovely little fact for you, a vast array of scarf designs from animals to umbrellas will have drawn inspiration from an object in that very collection! Including the brand's horse logo, originating from a painting which now hangs very grandly above a fireplace in one of the collection's rooms.
From the Emile Hermès Collection we then were lucky enough to meeting the head of design Christine Duvigneau along with scarf designer of 10 years Pierre Marie (why don't English names sounds as lovely as this?). They showed us how the famous silk scarf starts life, from painting to prototype, to how it can be styled on a lady's or gentlemen's outfit... Believe me there are A LOT of ways and I've never been so impressed. You can make a bag out of a scarf... They take "investment piece" to a whole new level. The lovely thing for me about this whole Parisian dream was getting to uncover the personality and life of one of the worlds leading fashion houses. I feel like sometimes the true heritage of a label gets lost behind its name and I felt so ridiculously lucky to catch a glimpse of the true history behind Hermès.
So fast forward a few weeks and we're back in Manchester. Hermés are now opening their super exciting pop up shop "Hermèsmatic" located in it's old shop space on King Street. So what's the concept behind the shop? The idea in a nutshell is you can completely reinvent your Hermès scarf- old or new- and inject a bit of your own creativity into it. Making it even more personal to you and only you. The shop consists of lots and lots of absolutely fantastic orange washing machines which I kind of want for myself and you can pop by with your scarf and have it completely revamped. The store will offer to re-upholister your scarf if needs be (when I was dropping mine off there was a lovely lady in there who'd had her scarf since the sixties, how incredible!) or you can have it dyed to any colour under the rainbow, the choice is yours. The beauty behind the dye is it completely transforms the scarves overall design which takes on a whole new lease of life! Such a clever little idea!
Now I completely understand that it's maybe not commonplace for everyone to have a Hermès scarf lying around but the nice thing about the pop up shop is how well it's been designed and set up. I would wholeheartedly recommend just swinging by simply to have a look at the shop fit and those washing machines. The store is only in Manchester for a limited amount of time so catch it whilst you can at 31 King St... Not that you can miss it, it's bright orange and oh so stylish... I wouldn't expect any less.
Sophia x
From one classic to another- title courtesy of The Rolling Stones- Factory Girl.
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