Hermès Festival des Métiers Part 3/3

Can you guess what this strip of fabric is?

Not a Twilly, but a tie! The tie pattern is actually screen-printed the same way scarves are made.

The pattern is then cut and the portions where the solid colored silk and the printed portion meet, plus the middle of the tie where 2 portions are fused together, are machine sewn.

The rest of the tie is sewn by hand. It takes a tie maker 8 to 10 minutes to finish one tie, and she averages 40 ties a day at least.

To give the tie its shape, a strip made up of 3 layers of compressed wool is inserted into the tie. The sides of the tie are rolled to meet in the middle. A heavy metal weight is used to hold the tie down on one side.

Pins go through the interlining so that it does not move. The tie maker has to be extra careful that the pins don't go through the front of the tie.

Stitching of the tie starts 15 cm from the tip of the tie. The whole tie is stitched using only one thread to make it stronger. The sort of stitching used is unique to Hermès, and that is what gives the tie it's suppleness. Also if you notice, the stitching is inside the tie,  so you don't see the stitching.  Watching her at work, it isn't simple at all. It takes a lot of practice and skill to get to this level.

There are a total of 50 stitches in an Hermès tie. Once it is finished, the tie is ironed and sent to quality control. The tie is again sent to Lyons for another round of quality control, and then shipped out to Paris and Hermès stores across the world.

Incidentally, if you want to know who made your tie, check out that letter and number stamped on the compress wool (not that you'll open it, but just in case). N refers to the person and 18 refers to the city where it was made.

Oh and of course, I had to ask, "How did you become a tie maker?"

"By chance!" the craftswoman replied. She said she one does not even need to be a seamstress.  She shares that she used to work in a school, but since she loves working with her hands she thought of becoming an artisan for Hermès. She underwent training for 3 months and then practiced working on ties from there.

So when you see a $185 tie from Hermès, remember this post before balking at the price. Heehee.

Hermès Festival des Métiers Part 2/3

Hermès scarves have a cult following of their own. There are people who collect scarves the same way there are people who collect bags. First introduced in 1928, scarves are coveted for their rare quality and of course, their designs. A desinateur is responsible for coming up with prints, and they spend years creating print patterns.

The final design is then screen-printed on this machine.

Check out the strips of silk under the silkscreen machine!

Hermès watches meanwhile are made in Switzerland. The watch subsidiary, La Montre Hermès, has in its employ, skilled watchmakers. There are two ways to becoming a watchmaker. One is to go to a watchmaking school in Switzerland, or to apprentice and undergo training for several years. This particular Hermès watchmaker here went to 4 years of watchmaking school in Switzerland, was further trained at La Montre Hermès for 1.5 years and continues to undergo regular trainings.

It takes 1 day to 1 month to finish a watch, depending on the mechanism of the watch being made. According to the watchmaker, the Tourbillon takes the longest to make. That is, if I understood his French correctly, heehee.

And that is just the mechanism. If a watch face or the dial requires some stone setting, then that will take much longer, months even. Here's the stone setter at work.

He was busy setting diamonds into the pyramid studs of this Collier de Chien:

The still to be assembled parts: far right is a pyramid stud with no diamonds. The stud next to it has been fully set with diamonds.

In the process of setting stones into the tiny cavities of the pyramid stud:

I just realized, if you're a stone setter, you can't be a klutz. Imagine banging your hand against that tray. How do you find the diamonds if they spill across the table and the floor? Eeek!

Hermès Festival des Métiers Part 1/3

Hermès started out as a harness workshop in 1837. It was only in 1880, when it moved to 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, did it establish a name in leather goods - specifically saddles. To this day, Hermès sells 300 to 400 saddles a year. Lucky horses, naka Hermès.

One way to buy into the Hermès leather tradition would be to get a wallet.

This lady, a leatherworker, hand stitched the Bearn wallet she is holding. She can make a wallet in 4.5 to 5 hours.

Meanwhile, it takes 15 hours to finish a Jypsiere...

I only managed to squeeze in through a crowd of onlookers for a few minutes, but in that short span of time, it was obvious that it takes a lot of painstaking work and attention to detail to make a bag like this.

Lucky girl, she can make an Hermès bag for herself, heehee.

I just have to say, I love the scarf interwoven in her braid!

Because I love to sew, thought I'd show you these spools of silk thread in gorgeous Hermès colors:

Hermès Festival des Métiers in Singapore

When my friend Naomi told me a few days ago that there was an Hermès exhibit in Paragon, I thought they just had a couple of bags and maybe photos on display.  Since I cannot in my life imagine spending thousands of dollars on a bag, or a small fortune on a small bauble, I had no sense of urgency to see it.

Funnily, it was a friend on vacation, Ingrid, who told me it was a must see.

"Hermès flew in artisans to Singapore and you can talk to them. You have to go!", Ingrid said.

Ok, that's an experience! I may not want to spend on a bag, but it might be interesting to know why those darn things cost so much. So I went, and apparently I was lucky. It was the last day of the exhibit in Singapore, the first Asian stop after a tour of Europe and the US. 

I saw how a tie was made from beginning to end...

I watched an artist create the artwork that would become the design of a scarf. And managed to see the silkscreen machine used for printing the scarves and ties, no demonstration though...

There was an artisan hand painting fine china and porcelain...

A watchmaker, a stone setter, a leather craftswoman, and a saddle maker were all happy to answer all questions (via interpreter). The highlight of the show though was the young artisan stitching this Jypsiere...

As I left the exhibit, I understood why Hermès spent serious marketing dollars on this traveling crafts festival, granted that print ads and sponsorships should come out cheaper, with less logistics to worry about. 

Seeing each item made by hand, done with much skill and expertise, by passionate craftsmen, gives each item soul. Like there is a face to a product and not just some machine, or half-starved child behind it. If I had a spare $2000 tucked away somewhere, I would have walked across Hermès  in Ngee Ann City to buy a wallet right there and then.

The succeeding posts will show the craftsmen at work, with bits of trivia I've picked up by talking to them, thrown in. Luxe lover or not, I think there is something to be appreciated here.

A devotion to quality by those who take pride in making them. And an appreciation for timeless craftsmanship, by those who invest in them.