4 Hermès Collaborations You Need To Know About
Hermès is one of the top French fashion houses, best known for their exclusive handbags, but they have also collaborated with a few other brands that you should know about – here are the top Hermès collaborations.
The luxury brand, Hermès, was founded in 1837 and has changed greatly since its equestrian roots. Now, the brand is one of the most in-demand fashion brands offering gorgeous ready-to-wear collections, shoes, accessories, and some of the most sought-after handbags in the world.
Hermès is well-known for the Birkin and Kelly bags – two handbags that are world-renowned status symbols in the luxury world. Both of these bags are very in demand and have long waiting lists, making the Hermès brand only more exclusive.
Hermès’ reputation is built upon its exclusivity, sleek design, and incredible craftsmanship. Each piece created by Hermès is treated like a work of art, where only one skilled craftsperson will work on the piece with their own tools to ensure each Hermès piece is top quality.
Due to their incredible reputation and exclusivity, Hermès rarely collaborates with other brands or artists, unlike many other luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior who have taken part in several collaborations. When Hermès does collaborate with another brand, it is only the top brands they are willing to work with.
This article will explore the few Hermès collaborations that the brand has undertaken and their exquisite details.
4 Best Hermès Collaborations
1. Hermès x Apple
The best-known Hermès collaboration is with the tech brand, Apple. This collaboration started in 2015 when the very first Apple watch was released – with the brand wanting to combine their top quality technology with the refined design and craftsmanship of Hermès. Apple and Hermès are well known for not collaborating with anyone, so this collab is pretty special.
The product of these two brands attracts both the tech audiences and the high fashion world – producing an Apple watch that is high quality and functionality with a luxurious design. The collaboration includes multiple watch straps along with 2 Hermès cases (41mm and 45 mm sizes), like the stunning Silver Stainless Steel Case with Gourmette Metal Double Tour, pictured above, so you can customize your watch to be a high fashion statement.
There are now many different straps in the collection that has been built over the last seven years. Most of the straps are crafted in the Hermès workshops in France for a stunning finish, and there are lots of beautiful watch straps available to suit any look.
There are double-wrapped leather options, leather and metal chain straps, and textile woven straps so you can easily find a watch strap you love, and swap them out to suit different outfits! These Apple x Hermès watch straps are only available from the Apple store and select Hermès stores, although resale sites, such as Fashionphile and Vestiaire Collective will also offer these straps secondhand for a discounted price.
The high-quality materials mean these straps really stand the test of time, so they are often in excellent condition on resale sites – plus you may be able to find a color and design that is no longer available from the Apple store.
The Hermès watch face comes with a few different interfaces and is available on the most recent Apple watch models.
On the one hand, you can choose a classic interface like the one pictured above, but you can also choose a face depicting a horse that moves its ears, nose, and eye for a super cute, interactive finish. The horse motif references the equestrian roots of this brand and is also available in four different colorways so you can adapt the colors to suit the straps.
This face combined with the Hermès strap transforms a super practical piece of tech into a luxury fashion statement that is the perfect accessory to any outfit.
2. Hermès x Rolls-Royce
Take a closer look at Rolls-Royce.com
In 2021, Hermès collaborated with British luxury car brand Rolls-Royce to create a totally incredible, one-of-a-kind Rolls-Royce Phantom. This unlikely collaboration brings together the exterior design and mechanics of Rolls-Royce motor cars, with the sophisticated interior design of Hermès in Paris.
The collaboration and the car were actually commissioned by the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, so Maezawa’s interests and culture were also included in the design of the car. Maezawa’s own private jet, as well as his art and ceramics collection has inspired this collaboration. The collaboration produced the Phantom Oribe which is described as a ‘land jet,’ bringing the unique exclusivity of private jet travel to the road.
Both of these luxury brands have long and rich histories, which have been delicately combined within this stunning car. The color scheme of the car is inspired by Japanese Oribe ware, which is a type of Japanese pottery from the 16th century that often has a green glaze and cream color, which is why the exterior color is green and the interior is cream with Royal Walnut accents.
The seats are covered in Hermès Enea green leather, while the carpets are finished in a seashell white shade to complete the green and cream color scheme. The heritage of the Hermès brand is shown in the gallery, across the dashboard and steering wheel of the car.
Pierre Pèron, who is best known for designing Hermès silk scarf has created a piece of artwork inspired by Hermès’s equestrian heritage and using the horse motif, which has then been painted on Open Pore Royal Walnut and protected behind glass.
The Rolls-Royce CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös expresses how this Phantom Oribe is the product of two great luxury brands, combining their expertise, skills, and vision to create this incredible, one-of-a-kind car.
3. Hermès x McLaren
Take a closer look at ArchitectualDigest.com
There was another bespoke car collaboration in 2021, this time between Hermès and McLaren. McLaren is another British luxury car brand with a long heritage of creating super-fast sports cars and a championship-winning Formula 1 team – another high-quality brand for Hermès to collaborate with.
This particular car was in fact commissioned by real estate mogul Manny Khoshbin who decided he wanted to take the already incredible McLaren Speedtail to the next level of luxury. McLaren worked alongside the creative director of the Hermès Bespoke and Special Projects Department, Axel de Beaufort to create a bespoke, exquisitely luxurious version of this supercar.
The Speedtail is an astonishing sportscar in itself – hand-built and limited edition, with only 106 of these cars made in total. Khoshbin then shipped this hybrid-powered aerodynamic car to Hermès to be customized – which meant the skilled craftspeople could push the design and craftsmanship that little bit further.
The brand had a clear vision to instill the Hermès history and heritage into this car with lots of special bespoke touches that took an antire year to complete.
Hermès leather in neutral tones of white and caramel brown cover the seats, the dashboard, the steering wheel, luggage compartments, and the headliner for a totally luxe feel. Hermès also create finer, thinner leather pieces to cover some of the more delicate aspects and details of the car.
The high-quality Hermès leather will get even softer over time and become more comfortable for the three passengers that fit inside the car. The Hermès H logo is laser cut into the door covers and engine cover, while the coordinates to the Hermès atelier and McLaren are etched into the side view mirrors.
The talented people at Hermès added that extra special touch, with a matching leather key fob case, driving gloves, and a custom-made weekend bag that fits the trapezoidal trunk that sits at the front of the car.
4. Hermès Éditeur
The final collaboration is not with a brand, but instead with artists who have worked with Hermès to create their own designs for the famous Hermès scarves. Pierre-Alexis Dumas, who is the artistic director at Hermès, has highlighted how important it is for the French brand to be at the forefront of art and high fashion to create the most luxurious, stylish pieces.
This is where the Hermès Éditeur project began, with the artwork of four well-known and respected artists printed onto Hermès scarves.
The Hermès silk scarf was first created in 1937 by Robert Dumas, who was incredibly interested in the designs and colors that could be printed on these luxury items. Dumas worked with Cassandre, Dufy, and Ledoux on his scarves, before Jean-Louis Dumas took over and worked with more artists, such as Kermit Oliver.
From these projects, the Hermès Éditeur collaborations were born, where a limited series of scarves are produced for each artist’s design. Hermès want to first use the work of Josef Albers on their scarves, where six of his works were used, with 200 units of each work. Albers is known not only as an artist but also as a writer, educator, and lithographer, whose Square Series was printed onto Hermès silk.
After Albers, Hermès collaborated with the contemporary artist Daniel Buren, whose work was printed on 365 unique scarves. Buren’s scarf collaboration with Hermès was titled ‘photos-souvenirs au carré’, where souvenir-style photographs decorated the scarves.
Hermès then worked with the Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, where 20 of Sugimoto’s polaroids were printed onto silk, with only seven units of each. The vibrant and vivid colors of Sugimoto’s ‘Colours of The Shadows’ series pop out of the scarves to create attention-grabbing pieces.
The fourth Hermès Éditeur collaboration was with Julio Le Parc, known for his kinetic and optic art. Six brightly colored scarves were designed, with only 10 units of each available – each decorated with an intricate and intertwined pattern.
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