Sean Rocha

At the Hermès party in New York

The series I write and photograph for the magazine Le Monde d’Hermès — you can see that work here, including pieces on a master Dutch typographer, a Keralan puppeteer, and cork harvesting in Portugal — interprets the magazine’s title by looking out from Hermès to capture how the House sees the world.  But in New York last night Hermès held an event they called ‘All About Women’ that was a fashion show and party, complete with what they dubbed ‘happenings,’ that turned that interpretation around, inviting the city into the world of Hermès through clever ways of experiencing its craft and its products.

The event was held in the magnificent old JP Morgan building on Wall Street, opposite the stock exchange and around the corner from their store at 15 Broad Street.  The sculpture outside the entrance was a piece of (oversized) origami, referencing the year’s theme of ‘metamorphosis.’

The night began with a défilé showing the Autumn/Winter women’s wear collection designed by Christophe Lemaire:

Then it moved on to the festivities, including this quite commendable selection of wine and Champagne:

Which came with Hermès bracelets, if you asked nicely:

The old bank building is enormous, allowing space for room after room of discoveries that included these ‘dancing bags’:

Jewelry floating in water, the darkened space making it difficult to tell just how they did that and giving the experience a sense of magic:

A beach scene with girls in swimsuits:

Miniature doll houses displaying watches and flea-sized shoes:

And, my favorite, a life drawing class with a model wearing various Hermès scarves:

Then the party began in earnest.  It ended, as one might hope, with a giant shoe in lights:

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The New York Times’ take on the event is worth a look.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2014 at 4:49 pm. It is filed under Latest Work and tagged with fashion, Hermès, Le Monde d'Hermès, New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.