Hermès was founded in 1837 by French harness maker Thierry Hermès, a purveyor to royal houses throughout Europe. His grandson Émile-Maurice modernized the company, enlisting his friends Louis Renault and Ettore Bugatti to make trunks for cars, commissioning decorator Jean-Michel Frank to design furniture, introducing belts and couture, and expanding the retail network to fashionable resorts such as Deauville and Cannes.
Émile-Maurice had three daughters who married well, creating three new branches of the family: Guerrand, Puech and Dumas; a fourth died young. In the late 1930s, his son-in-law Robert Dumas suggested the company expand its racing silks into scarves and neckties, and Dumas designed several himself. In the 1950s, he took over the company from Émile-Maurice and ran it respectably for three decades. It was Dumas’s dynamic fourth son, Jean-Louis, however, who turned the company into the luxury powerhouse it is today.
If you like Hermes, and want to know more about this luxurious fashion name, here is WSJ’s exclusive tour of the back rooms and ateliers of the celebrated French fashion house, text By Dana Thomas at WSJ WallStreetJournal:
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