Wanted proof that can instill luxury into pretty much anything? Pop down to the labels New Bond Street store this week and see how its mastered the art of recycling.
In 2010 Pascale Mussard, part of the sixth generation of the family, set up the Petit h atelier. The idea? To gather together everything from off-cuts of leather to rejected silk scarves and to put them to good use. And in true Hermes style, only the best craftsmen have been employed to let their imaginations run wild.
I invite designers and artists into the Petit h workshops that we call our Ali baba cavern, where all the different materials rejected by Hermès are gathered like acorns, explains Mussard. These collaborators have free rein to explore and create. Rebirth and up-cycling is the underlying approach I love to re-create, re-invent and re- enchant.
All the products are one-offs and range from the accessible through to the kind of presents you buy the person who has everything; windmills made from leather off -cuts with solid silver fixings and handles made from wood grown especially to make Hermes riding crops, bracelets made from knotted pieces of coloured silks, a giant leather origami bear that houses a drinks cabinet and teapots that have been given leather wings and turned into lights. Its pretty extraordinary.
For the first time the Petit h collection has come to London and the labels Bond Street store has been turned into an exhibition space, designed by artist Faye Toogood, that showcases some of the most recent creations. And you can buy as well as look so thats Christmas sorted too.
The exhibition runs Hermes, 155 New Bond Street until 7 December.
