Festival Des Métiers - A Rendezvous with Hermès Craftspeople

From 21- 27 May the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square is hosting this amazing, free event, where you can get up close and serious with the Hermès brand and see the way they combine new skills with traditional craftsmanship.  This is a not your average exhibition and not your average company.  You really get to see the essence of the house in all its glory, with talks from the artists as they create Hermès products, the chance to touch and handle raw materials and products and, brilliantly, a rare opportunity to engage with Hermès craftsmen and women (translators available, thank you) as they work. 

When you first go into the gallery, there are finely cut leathers on each side of the room which, on the first of the ‘stands’, you can watch being lovingly transformed into a Hermès bag.  Creating one strap alone takes two hours and a whole beg takes twenty-five!  The guy at work when I visited had been with Hermès for 25 years.  I was really struck by the fact that each bag is made by one person from start to finish and, if you lined them all up, they could tell who had made which one.

I also loved the scarf-making section, where you could follow the process from start to finish - from purchasing the fabric to the final screen printing.  The preparation of drawings for the printing takes a mind bending 600 to 800 hours! It’s beyond amazing to see the amount of effort these craftsmen and women put into their work.

This was a dip into a whole different kind of manufacturing process – the quality of the raw materials, the dedication, skill, tradition and pride of the craftsmen and women, the tiny details put into each individual piece they make, whether clothing, watches, scarves, bags, printed fabrics and so on … no wonder Hermès products scream out luxury and demand a high price.

The Hermès brand was founded in Paris by Thierry Hermès in 1837 and, over six generations, has developed from focusing on harness-making to a global business producing a broad range of luxury items, whilst still remaining a family business.  And yes, you can still buy Hermès for your horse! 

This exhibition offers a beautiful insight to the heritage of the brand and those working within it, demonstrating just how much love and care goes into making each individual product.  Love it.