Q. Is this change across all age groups? Now we have a younger generation buying ties because the older generation is not wearing them anymore. They are trying to be different, and are looking for something specific, as compared to their bosses or fathers who bought ties because they had to. If you had asked me about ties 10 years ago, I would not be so optimistic because then we were saying, ‘Okay, people are buying fewer and fewer ties’. But today I am quite optimistic because they are still important pieces of the wardrobe, still in the middle of the silhouette. When you are wearing a shirt it’s nice to have a tie, it is still something very elegant.
Q. Where and how do scarves fit in the picture? So there is an aesthetic thing and a functional thing, of protecting me from cold. I think it brings colour to men’s outfits. We are pretty much always in grey, dark navy, black, etc, we are not yet into yellow, bright blue or pink, so it brings colour.
Q. Hermes scarf designs have been put on vinyl record covers as part of the touring Silk Mix exhibition (a temporary installation inspired by a vinyl record store). How did that come about?For many years Véronique Nichanian [artistic director of the Hermes men’s universe] and I have been making scarves, and we kept saying they could be beautiful sleeves for records. So we talked about it, saying let’s do it, but we didn’t. Until one day we did. We took the last eight years’ collections, put each design on a record sleeve and tried to find music from the runway show, matched it to the music from the year of the collection. It wasn’t about launching a new product, it was about a free gift of emotion, a meeting point with our customer. Because music has this power to remind you of things, when you listen to something from 10 years ago, you think, ‘Ah yes, I was there’.
First Published: Feb 16, 2019, 07:46
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