A BRIEF HISTORY
Hermes is more than ties, silk scarves and Kelly Bags... Thierry Hermes established his harness making firm in 1837, in 1879 son Emile-Charles Hermes extended the line to include saddle making. The 1920's saw the addition of couture, jewelry, silver, gold, gloves, watches, overnight bags, date books and silk scarves. In the 50's and 60's came perfumes, ties, shoes, beach towels, enameled jewelry as well as women's and men's clothes. Identified with beautiful silk scarves, Hermes is known for the "Kelly Bag" which Grace Kelly made world famous.
Hermes is a French company founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermes (1801-1878) to make leather goods. His family was originally from Germany and settled in Paris around 1828. His son Charles-Emile Hermes (1835-1919), and grandsons Adolphe Hermes and Emile-Maurice (1870-1951), continued to run the family firm after Thierry died. Emile-Maurice had four daughters, one of them married Robert Dumas. When Emile-Maurice died in 1951, his son-in-laws Robert Dumas (1905-1978) and Jean-Rene Guerrand (1901-1993) took over Hermes. They added the name Hermes to their own surname. Robert Dumas-Hermes introduced the Hermes Tie, the Beach towel and the Perfumes. When Robert Dumas died in 1978, his son Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermes (born 1938) took over the company. He is the 5th generation Chairman of Hermes. He is very much a "hands-on" chairman, taking a personal interest in every Hermes product or development. He travels extensively all over the world, and brings back ideas which go into Hermes product lines. His wife Rena is a Greek-born architect and is very involved with charitable activities and philanthropy; she is responsible for the new "look" of the Hermes boutiques. His son Pierre-Alexis is studied art in school. Hermes has remained a family-owned company. Only 20 % of it's shares are traded on the Paris Bourse. Annual sales top more than $ l billion. The ethic of meticulous craftsmanship learned in saddle-making is consistent throughout the company for every product they make. Hermes sales are made up of 30 % leather goods, 15 % clothes, 12 % scarves and 15% ties.
The most coveted ties in the world are fashioned by the French House of Hermes. They embody refinement, masterful design, timeless style and a true sense of tradition. Brand New, most regular collection Hermes Ties command $160.00 and the scarf ties almost $100 more.
From the International Herald Tribune, by Joseph Fitchett, January 25th 1997: Hermes Paris Stores Sell a Million Neckties Annually - When neckties pulled ahead of women's ornate silk scarves as Hermes top-selling accessory, it marked a fashion revolution - and a global marketing coup. In less than five years, the Paris luxury goods house had zoomed to being a market leader in $100-plus neckwear, largely thanks to a new line of printed silk ties that featured elegantly drawn, colorful little animals. Jibes about ''animal cracker'' ties died in critics' throats as the ties suddenly became almost required wearing for politicians, businessmen and wannabees.
In Hermes emporia from Paris to Hong Kong, men around stirrup-shaped brass racks wait for the opportunity to pull a trusted sales clerk aside in hopes of getting a lead on their pet tie out of the semi-annual collection of 70 or so. A lot of businessmen's international calls started to include an exchange of intelligence about what shop might still have a tie with blue bears on a white background. The global frenzy was a marketer's dream.
Today, Hermes sells more than a million neckties a year, bringing in 10 percent of the French company's revenue. The animals' appeal has even revived interest in Hermes's more traditional ties, featuring geometric variations, usually on stirrups and other bits of tackle. There was nothing preordained about Hermes's coup. It had been selling ties since the 1950s (and in fact is credited with inventing silk-screen printing as a decorative alternative to weaving patterns in silk), but it was a minor line. Hermes only made ties at all because its Monte Carlo shop, located next door to the Casino, had spotted a small market in tie-less gamblers who needed neckwear to meet the dress code imposed at the gaming tables.
Hermes only broke with its horsy traditions in the mid-1980s when it left behind its grouse and other game birds and showed instead stylized, often cheeky, wild animals, starting with elephants spouting water from their raised trunks. They proved to have wild appeal, so quickly ark loads of these creatures started adorning Hermes's sleekly finished ties: birds, hippos, pandas, koala bears, even lambs straight out of St. Exupéry's tale, ''The Little Prince.''
Animal motifs had been tried in Italy by Gucci and especially by Ferragamo, but a big international clientele quickly started snapping up the snappy new Hermes designs. Professional people, who felt obliged to conform in their suits and shirts, saw the new ties as an expressive personal touch, says the Hermes CEO, Jean-Louis Dumas. The new Hermes ties caused a frenzy. As collections sold out, businessmen combed their international contacts to locate a sought-after tie. One Hermes-crazed businessman wanted to be buried in his Hermes ties stitched together as a shroud, according to François Chaille, author of a recent, authoritative study, ''The Book of Ties'' (Flammarion).
How did Hermes come up with such a winner? The laws of fashion design dictate that ties must be serious in times of prosperity and light-hearted in times of crisis, so in the 1990s, European designers apparently were looking for something a little more playful. The new Hermes tie, with its fine workmanship, managed to carry off a witty affair with the boyish vernacular of novelty ties by alluding to pin-up figures, Santa Claus, flashing messages. The risk, obviously, was that Hermes's figures would end up looking like the Scotties, Johnnie Walkers or Chinese parasols that used to turn up on plastic swizzle sticks in hotsy-totsy bars. THEY did not, of course, mainly because Hermes adopted a sophisticated design known in the trade as an ''all-over'' - meaning a repeating pattern in which the small identical motifs recur in a regular design covering the entire cloth. ''Even St. Exupéry's tiny lambs, when repeated 200 times at regular intervals, can create a very dressy impression,'' Chaille says. And the new ties had the Hermes touch, including the special interlining that implants a subtle forward swell.
Keeping silk ties from looking limp is so important that Pierre-Antoine Rabernin, the top tie salesman in the Paris store, does not want his clients to send their Hermes ties to be cleaned except to artisans who know how to remove the interlining and then sew it back in after the envelope of printed silk has been cleaned and pressed. (He recommends two places in Paris, Pressing de la Madeleine near the store and Anne Marie's near the Arch of Triumph.) In its new collection, Hermes has started edging away from the animal motifs, partly because they have been so widely imitated. For fans, the store is organizing a computerized search system designed to query every Hermes sales point and warehouse in an effort to locate any overlooked specimens of a customer's favorite animal tie.
In 1949 the Hermès tie collection was introduced. Designs involved figurative, geometrics, classics, neo-classics and trompe I'oeil effects. Other options include the gavroche, pochette and novelty. There are 30 silk twill designs in each collection, approximately 25 new designs, plus 5 re-editions in new colorations. The heavy silk collection features 15 new designs each season.
Silk twill ties are printed in exactly the same manner as a scarf with an average of 7 frames or colors per piece. The trademark feature of an Hermès tie is that it is made from only 2 pieces, cut by hand, the large side and the small side, rather than the 3 pieces generally used by competitors. The lining of Hermès ties always matches the background or base color from the front of the tie.
A piece of "buckram" gives shape to the tie and is attached to the silk for longevity. The tie is then stitched with a single thread with no knotting during assembly. A loop is used at each end of the tie. Tie reference printed on the back of the small side corresponds to the design number, the letters indicate the mark of the craftsman who finished the tie by hand. A chic and funny Hermès ties with an interesting pattern: Elephants and Mice. This scarf can tell the well known anecdote of the mouse and elephant just with a few pictures. Elephant grey background, exquisite quality of the silk, thick and flawless.
Brighten up your wardrobe and give it a witty touch.
Hope this helped. Good luck and happy buying.
Questions? I may have the answers... Andrew.