Uncover The Soul Craft Of The Classic Connotation In The Production Process Of Hermes Scarves

Since its birth in 1937, Hermes The manufacturing process of silk scarves has never changed. "This kind of craftsmanship has a price, which is time. Because it takes up to two years from the design drawings to the completion of the silk scarf!" Ms. Bali Barret, creative director of Hermes silk series, told us. When it comes to scarves, she has endless topics, "Here, I feel like a fish in water. I am lucky to have the trust of two global art directors, Mr. Pierre Alexis Dumas and his cousin, Ms. Pascale Mussard. It is an honor to be the creative director of the Silk Series. I have been working hard to be qualified for this job, because this is the first time Hermes entrusted such an important job to someone outside the family."

Bali has long been associated with Hermes Square. "I have been a fan of it since I was a teenager. I am surrounded by scarves from my mother, which are tied to my hair, neck, wrist, and bags. I am so fascinated that the mother of one of my ex boyfriends gave me all her scarves collection!" Today, Bali's greatest happiness is to discover new ones designer , renovate the forgotten styles, and then, of course, let people evaluate the value of these ideas. Whenever she thinks of her 70 years old, instead of her old face, those 70 x 70 cm gauze scarves with meticulous workmanship become precious collections. She is also proud of the triangular silk scarf and the 70cm square scarf with gold or silver inlaid on the metal silk, which are the crystallization of her art.

Design, the first step of genius

Bali spends two and a half days a week with designers, "We have loyal designers who have worked with us for many years, and I am always looking for new designers. We always work with independent designers from all over the world. We never close ourselves, and everyone has a chance to design for Hermes." She introduced some of the most important designers to us: Kermit Oliver, a manufacturer in Texas, Made kerchief for Indians; Sefedin Ibrahim Alamin, a young Sudanese, made the first square scarf at the age of 14; Ding Yi, Chinese artist; Leigh Cooke, British watercolor painter; Dimitri Rybaltchenko, a family designer, whose father and cousin are also designers... Bali said. Creativity is exactly what Hermes needs, because it launches 12 new models every season, which does not include the refurbished old version.

When the designer had an idea in mind, he first came to discuss it with Bali. After modification, he finally took it to a meeting with Pierre Alexis Dumas and his cousin Pascale Mussard. At the meeting, everyone gathered around the 1:1 scale model, which was usually a piece of cardboard covered with felt or puzzles, and everyone put forward their own comments, such as: the characters should be enlarged, the flowers should be smaller, the tiger's hair could be denser... Once the model was determined, it was sent to Hermes workshop in Lyon as is for production.

Plate making, details determine inheritance

Gandit Plate Engraving Company (owned by Hermes Group), located in the suburb of Lyon, has undertaken the responsibility of Hermes Silk scarf The plate making work of. The first step of plate making is to decompose the various colors of the pattern. This step is called Clichage. When casting a plate, the plate maker will sit in front of a lighted table, stick a piece of transparent paper to the model, and then use Chinese ink to draw the details of each same color on the transparent paper. A color is a piece of transparent paper. If a silk scarf has 40 different colors, you need to draw 40 sheets of transparent paper. Pierre, the director of the drawing room, said: "Usually, it takes 500 to 600 hours to carve an ordinary square towel, but it may also take 2200 hours for complex patterns." The ant like slow work is of crucial significance, because perfect plate making must depend on perfect painting.

In order to draw the pattern as accurately as possible, the plate makers followed the old method, using brush and Chinese ink. After painting, the transparent paper is sent to a special workshop to be made into a stencil. Bali said, "Although most companies have used digital inkjet technology, we always adhere to the tradition and use the ancient screen printing technology." On average, each silk scarf needs 30 stereotypes, and at most 40 stereotypes. After the stencil is made, it is sent to AS Studio (under Hermes) for color preparation and rubbing.

Coloring, God's Finger Game

Undoubtedly, complex, thick and strong colors are the most special representative elements of Hermes scarves. In the "paint kitchen" used to prepare colors, there are pans, scrapers, mixers and scales everywhere. Hermes craftsmen have developed 74000 different tones based on 40 parent colors by elaborately proportioning water, natural gum and pigments. Cotton red, slim black, aurora blue, neutral grey, trade wind blue, toluene yellow... Each color has its corresponding number. The whole process is huge and complicated, which is completely beyond the imagination of the world. After all the pigments are prepared, the printing can be started by injecting the corresponding stereotypes.

Printing, the Soul of Silk Scarves

The 150 meter long printing table looks like a bowling alley! The principle of printing is very simple: first, the white twill silk cloth is rolled on the printing machine, and then each stencil is stamped on one after another, each time is a color. The patterns of silk scarves gradually emerge with the stereotyped imprint. Then several supervisors of the workshop check whether each color is stamped in place and whether there is ink stain. The edge of the embossing square scarf is completed. Then hang the silk towel on the table and let it dry for several hours. After it is dried, use the steam oven to fix the color, clean the residual impression of gum, and lay it flat on the carpet to dry with hot air. The final process is manual tailoring Cropping And curling, this process takes an average of 45 minutes per scarf.