Introduction
Founded in 1837, Hermès (French pronunciation: [ɛʁmɛs]) is a renowned French luxury brand specializing in leather goods, lifestyle accessories, home décor, perfumes, jewelry, watches, and ready-to-wear clothing. Since the 1950s, its logo features a Duke’s carriage with a horse. The current creative director is Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski. Hermès’ flagship store is located in Paris, with boutiques spread across the globe.
History
Flagship Store
The Hermès flagship store is situated on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris. Originally a harness workshop, Hermès recognized the decline of carriage use with the advent of automobiles and shifted its focus to producing leather goods, including wallets and handbags, achieving great success.
The logo we use today is inspired by a watercolor painting by Alfred de Dreux displayed in the Hermès Museum. The painting depicts a young coachman waiting by a Victorian-style carriage. The founder of Hermès drew inspiration from this image, which later became the emblem for the perfume Caleche. This intentional choice highlights the brand's historical connection to the carriage era while emphasizing that Hermès products are made with the highest quality. Ultimately, how customers express their individual style through these products is what matters, suggesting that the true essence of Hermès lies in its understated elegance.
19th Century
Hermès was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès (1801–1878) as a harness manufacturing company. Notably, clients included figures such as Napoleon III and the Russian Tsar.
Thierry’s grandson, Émile-Maurice Hermès (1871–1951), expanded the business into diverse product lines. In the 1890s, leveraging the expertise in harness making, Hermès produced its first handbag, the Sac haut-à-croire. In 1927, they introduced watches, and soon after, they expanded to clothing, jewelry, and decorative items, managing all aspects of design, manufacturing, and retail in-house.
20th Century
In the 1920s, Hermès actively broadened its product range to include handbags, travel bags, gloves, belts, jewelry, notebooks, ashtrays, and silk scarves, while also opening its first overseas boutique in New York, marking a significant milestone.
Since the introduction of its first silk scarf in 1937, Hermès has launched over 900 scarf designs. The standard size of an Hermès scarf is 90x90 cm, made from 75 grams of silk, offering versatile styling options as wrist, shoulder, neck, or bag accessories.
Under the leadership of Robert Dumas in the 1950s, Hermès continued to introduce new products including perfumes, ties, suits, shoes, bath towels, porcelain, jewelry, and both men’s and women’s apparel.
In 1975, Hermès acquired the rights to John Lobb shoe factory, expanding its portfolio with other prestigious brands including boots, textiles, and hats. Among Hermès’ 14 business segments, leather goods rank first, followed by silk and ready-to-wear, with watchmaking in fourth place, followed by perfumes, tableware, silverware, crystal, and jewelry.
In 1975, Hermès opened its first standalone store at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. In 1997, the brand targeted the Chinese market with a dedicated store in the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing.
21st Century
Today, Hermès operates over 80 subsidiaries involved in production, wholesale, retail, and logistics management, encompassing three main divisions: Hermès Sellier (leather goods), La Montre Hermès (watches), and Hermès Parfums (perfumes). The brand boasts around 200 boutiques and 56 retail counters worldwide, ensuring all product designs, store layouts, and display cabinets are custom-made in France, air-freighted to maintain the brand's century-old standards.
In January 2018, Hermès relocated its first independent store, established in 1975 at the Peninsula Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, to a new flagship store in the Prince's Building in Central.
In 2018, Hermès launched a mobile game app inspired by the traditional horseshoe throwing game.
In April 2018, Hermès participated in the Milan Design Week, showcasing a “Home” exhibition themed “All about colour,” with different spaces featuring distinct colors and atmospheres.
In July 2018, Hermès transformed the National Art Center in Tokyo into a large movie set, collaboratively produced by Hermès Women’s Artistic Director Bali Barret, French producer and curator Laure Falmmarion, and Women’s Ready-to-Wear Artistic Director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, turning the fashion show into a film premiere.
In September 2018, the Spring/Summer 2019 fashion show took place at the Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, themed around sporty elegance and featuring vibrant colors.
