The Diapason d'Hermès lounge chair is made with unlined bridle leather stretched on a hammered-aluminum frame.
Photo: Maxime Verret
Hermès Channels Its Exceptional Craftsmanship into Sublime Furniture
A sculptural chair captures the exquisite creativity with which the maison approaches its home collection
Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry, co-artistic directors for the home at Hermès. Photo: Studio Des Fleurs
Although the Birkin bag, with all its beauty and craftsmanship, remains the most obsessed over treasure in the Hermès stable, the maison’s collection of furniture may be the more sublime and rarer creations. A go-to maker for legendary designer Jean-Michel Frank (models of his original concepts from the 1920s and ’30s are still on offer through Hermès), the brand continues to innovate nearly a century later, introducing unexpected styles that blend elegance, ingenuity, and surprise.
For the past decade, co–artistic directors for home Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry have leaned into their diverse backgrounds (as an architect and a curator, respectively) and harnessed their creative freedom to reinterpret the category. Macaux Perelman recalls how they initially dove into their roles by asking the right questions of Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès as well as a great-great-great grandson of founder Thierry Hermès. “When we started, one of the first questions we asked was, ‘Are you asking us to do a Kelly bag or is it a scarf?’ He said, ‘It’s both.’” The duo took that feedback and ran with it, albeit in a carefully considered, restrained fashion befitting Hermès.
The Karumi bench by Álvaro Siza Vieira. Photo: Studio Des Fleurs
For instance, at this year’s Milan Design Week, the home collection revealed just one new furniture piece: the Diapason d’Hermès lounge chair, which combines unlined bridle leather and hammered aluminum in a streamlined, cantilevered silhouette. The juxtaposition of materials along with the striking shape results in an elegant take on Brutalism. “It’s quite an expressive gesture because it plays with light,” says Fabry. “We worked a lot on having the right vibration, the right materiality, the right emotion.”
But this debut is only the pair’s latest achievement; other examples conveying a similar rigor and respect for raw materials have become modern classics. These include the Karumi bench, designed by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira and made by Japanese craftsmen using bamboo-wrapped carbon fiber in a combination of old-fashioned craft and high-tech innovation, as well as the Équilibre d’Hermès table and chairs by British designer Jasper Morrison, the latter of which are fashioned with a simplicity that belies their extraordinary rigor, as each slatted chairback is constructed from a single piece of natural oak. Similarly, the Lignage d’Hermès, conceived by Studio Mumbai and carved from one mass of Hainaut bluestone, resembles a sculpture more than a table, with engraved lines that turn the black rock white, forming a burst of rays.
The Lignage d'Hermès table by Studio Mumbai. Photo: Courtesy of Hermès
"We worked a lot on having the right vibration, the right materiality, the right emotion"
Alexis Fabry
The Équilibre d'Hermès chair by Jasper Morrison. Photo: Carole Bellaiche
Yet no matter how diverse the collection may be, there’s always an underlying mix of creativity and obsession that results in pure magic.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Collectors Issue under the headline “Bridled Passion.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: The Diapason d'Hermès lounge chair is made with unlined bridle leather stretched on a hammered-aluminum frame.
Photo: Maxime Verret
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