Hermes: Open House

Text by Sitanshi Talati-Parikh

Discover the graphic world of shopping with the new Hermes online concept store

‘Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.’
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if we could shop aimlessly and with gay abandon, stumbling upon the things that most impressed us and made us merry? How lovely it would be if fashion, art, architecture and technology came together in a happy mix, giving us a sublime, subterranean world of exploration.

Illustrator Pierre Marie, who has also previously designed scarves for Hermès, worked with Bali Barret to design an interactive online shopping space in a rich illustrative style. As they describe it, it is Hermès’ first ‘dedicated virtual home for its ebullient women’s silk collections.’ The clever bit lies in the fact that the virtual home is in a constant state of change (taking into account the time of day and weather!), which the visitor discovers while wandering freely around, exploring the myriad rooms: a treasure chamber, a saloon, a cinema, a colour mixing kitchen…and even a boys’ bedroom. And in there lies a treasure trove of over six hundred models of silk squares, shawls, twillys, scarves and stoles.

Wherever you are in the world, at any point of time, using your computer, tablet or smartphone, you can explore this world and find the perfect scarf, based on colour, design, or material (silk/cashmere). Discover ideas for knotting a scarf, while you are at it! It launches on lamaisondescarres.com.