{"id":1267,"date":"2020-04-17T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T22:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=171372"},"modified":"2020-11-28T22:15:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T22:15:13","slug":"lipsticks-and-leather","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/lipsticks-and-leather\/","title":{"rendered":"Lipsticks And Leather"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image credit: Sasha Marro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARIS: I\u2019m standing at the counter of the famed Du Pain et des Id\u00e9es boulangerie of the 10th arrondissement in Paris, trying to decide between an escargot aux pralines or a pain au chocolat. According to sources, the pastries here are some of the best in the city \u2013 maybe even the world. A slew of Google reviews such as \u201cI\u2019ll never forget the incredible smell of this bakery\u201d will only convince you further. After a moment\u2019s deliberation, I get both. Flaky and fluffy all at once, each bite is better than the next. I leave with no regrets<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t been, let me be the first to tell you that Paris is not the place to do (or eat) things in halves. One pastry, one shop at Le Bon March\u00e9, one stroll around the Jardin des Tuileries is never enough. It\u2019s not a city of excess per se, but instead a purveyor of the finer things in life be it food, literature, art, romance or architecture. It\u2019s for this reason Paris is a mecca of all that is beautiful and imaginative \u2013 a statement that rings especially true when it comes to fashion.<\/p>\n

I found myself in Paris not just for the pain au chocolats but as a guest of a fashion house that epitomizes said beauty and imagination in spades: Herm\u00e8s. Of course, French-born high fashion is in no short supply, but few transpose the true ideals of luxury quite like Herm\u00e8s does. It\u2019s commonly grouped with other luxuriates, but it tends to hover just a little bit higher. It\u2019s no mistake that even the richest people in the world wait months to own of one of its revered Birkin bags.<\/p>\n

The pilgrimage to Paris though was not all about Birkins, but rather a launch that had been almost two decades in the making. For the first time in its history, the house was gearing up to launch the Herm\u00e8s Beaute M\u00e9tier: a complete introduction to the landscape of color cosmetics. While the m\u00e9tier has incredible plans set to transform beauty over the course of coming years, it has launched with one single, perfect product: Rouge Herm\u00e8s, an object devoted to the beauty of lips. \u201cWe approach this new m\u00e9tier in our own way, and with a great deal of pleasure,\u201d says CEO of Herm\u00e8s Axel Dumas. \u201cHerm\u00e8s Beauty is part of who we are: a house where everything comes from creation, driven by artisans who seek to accompany the men and women of today with elegance, and with the integrity and authenticity that we represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, to appreciate the Herm\u00e8s Beaute M\u00e9tier (and the Rouge Herm\u00e8s jewel in its crown) one must firstly understand all that came before. The atelier\u2019s 183-year history is one that\u2019s long and rich in detail. With origins in saddle creation, the essence of the house has always been in craftsmanship \u2013 in deft creation and an impossibly high level of quality. Founder Thierry Herm\u00e8s was a man who was good with his hands \u2013 a legacy that has since translated through six generations of the still family-owned business. And while the heart of Herm\u00e8s still beats firmly for the intricacies of leather goods, two centuries have seen the introduction of menswear, womenswear, jewelry, accessories, home, fine fragrance, and now, beauty.<\/p>\n

Within all of its m\u00e9tiers, the real calling card of Herm\u00e8s is perfection, something I was fortunate enough to witness at one of the leather ateliers in Pantin, Paris. A sacred place, phones are confiscated on entry to protect the work of artisans who expertly transform leather and thread into bags. Right from conception, every single thing is done by hand \u2013 an unsurpassed tradition involving tools like mallets and knives. Bags are not shared among the group but rather kept by an individual to build and finesse until completion. I wondered if there\u2019s an emotional attachment \u2013 how could one spend 30 hours laboring painstakingly over something only to let it go? But I imagine it could be likened to an author writing a literary masterpiece only to not let anyone else read it (which would be a damn shame to put it bluntly). As somewhat of a finality, each craftsperson leaves a tiny signature somewhere on the bag, so that for the entirety of its life, it can always be traced back to who, when, and where it came from. The entire process is magic to witness, especially without any digital proof it happened. They say seeing is believing, but even now I can hardly believe my eyes.<\/p>\n

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Image credit: Joaquin Laguinge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is intricacy such as these that has lent themselves to the creation of Rouge Herm\u00e8s: the meticulous crafting of leather goods, the rich, vivid tapestry of silk Herm\u00e8s carr\u00e9s, the love for all that is whimsy and wonderful. Tiny, vintage beauty objects from decades past also played an inspirational part, hidden deep in the vault of the Emile Herm\u00e8s Museum \u2013 an astonishing hideaway tucked above the Le Faubourg Saint-Honore flagship store. The original workspace of Emile-Maurice Herm\u00e8s, the space is akin to a magpie\u2019s nest, crammed and crowded with shiny, pretty objects (like a rocking horse that supposedly belonged to the son of Louis-Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte and a painting that sparked initial inspiration for the Herm\u00e8s horse-and-carriage logo). Now, it\u2019s a place of inspiration for the brand\u2019s artisans, including those involved in the creation of Rouge Herm\u00e8s \u2013 not just a lipstick, but rather 183 years of color, creation and craft.<\/p>\n

According to the brand, Rouge Herm\u00e8s involved five years of development and years of prior dreaming by Artistic Director Pierre-Alexis Dumas (who has been with the house for some 25 years) and CEO of Herm\u00e8s Perfume & Beauty Agn\u00e8s de Villers. Rouge Herm\u00e8s comes in 24 superb shades spanning both matte and satin finishes inspired by Herm\u00e8s Doblis and Box leathers. To arrive at this edit though was no simple task. Dumas assembled a team of the best, including Artistic Director of the Herm\u00e8s Women\u2019s Universe and Creative Director of Women\u2019s Silk Bali Barret and Creative Director for Herm\u00e8s Beauty J\u00e9r\u00f4me Touron to investigate color, a journey that saw them consult an archival collection of 75,000 Herm\u00e8s silk swatches and 900 leather samples. There are staples like slick cherry red and a rendition of punchy Herm\u00e8s orange, but also surprising hues like rich bordeaux and deep plummy-purple. \u201cAt Herm\u00e8s, color is an irrational, intoxicating passion, a craftsmanship of nuances, an obsession with striking the right tone, and a language all of its own,\u201d explains Barrett. Each shade transcends the notion of trends, timeless as opposed to timely. With that being said however, Rouge Herm\u00e8s will feature three limited shades per season \u2013 a true collector\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

The lipstick itself, however, is not where the magic ends. Creative Director of Herm\u00e8s Jewelry and Herm\u00e8s Shoes Pierre Hardy certainly tapped the virtues of his artistic abilities when it came to designing the packaging. The result is a striking, graphic bullet so beautiful it almost seems criminal to keep it anywhere that isn\u2019t a glass display cabinet. The tube is made of lacquered, brushed and polished metal in black, white or permabrass gold hardware. As Hardy explains, \u201cI love the simplicity of pure shapes that colors have the ability to animate. Intuitively, to become timeless, this object had to be able to morph, remain iconic, but stay fluid, be part of a connected sequence, and perpetually recognizable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it wouldn\u2019t be Herm\u00e8s without an element of surprise \u2013 each bullet is refillable, and you can add a tiny lip brush made from lacquered wood, Poppy lip shine, lip care balm, translucent liner, a mirror-pendant, or a tiny leather case for safekeeping. In-house perfumer Christine Nagel even designed a custom scent for the product: a soft, woody redolence, or in other words, the perfect incarnation of what a luxury lipstick should smell like. Categorically, it\u2019s a color cosmetic, but all the elements synonymous with the house \u2013 detail, creativity, quirk \u2013 make it less object, and more objet d\u2019art. It\u2019s lipstick heaven of the Herm\u00e8s variety. And finally, it\u2019s here.<\/p>\n

Crafty, witty, ingenious Herm\u00e8s. I can\u2019t wait to see what you do next.<\/p>\n

The Rouge Herm\u00e8s collection will be available from 4th March 2020 in selected Herm\u00e8s stores and retail outlets<\/a> in 35 countries.<\/em><\/p>\n

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