Beginnings in the 19th century
Thierry Hermès, founder of Hermès.
The Hermès family, originally
Protestant Germans, settled in France in 1828.
[3][broken citation] In 1837, Thierry Hermès (1801–1878) first established Hermès as a harness
workshop, on the Grands Boulevards quarter of Paris, dedicated to purveying to
European noblemen.
[4][broken citation][5] He created the finest wrought harnesses and bridles for the carriage trade.
[6] The company earned acclaim in 1855, winning first prize in its class at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris.
[6] Monsieur Hermès won the first-class medal of the 1867 Exposition Universelle also in Paris.
[4][broken citation] Hermès's son, Charles-Émile Hermès (1835–1919),
[3] took over management from his father and moved the shop in 1880 to 24 Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a location near the Palais de l'Elysée. It is at this location, still the Hermès shop today, where the new leader introduced
saddlery and began retail sales.
[6] With the aid of sons Adolphe and Émile-Maurice Hermès, the company catered to the elite of Europe, North Africa, Russia, Asia, and the Americas. In 1900, the company offered the
haut à courroies bag, specially designed for riders to carry their saddles with them.
[4][broken citation]
[edit] Hermès Frères era
After Charles-Emile Hermès retired from the company, his sons Adolphe and Émile-Maurice took leadership and renamed the company Hermès Frères.
[4] Shortly after, Émile-Maurice furnished the
czar of Russia with saddles.
[3] By 1914, up to 80 saddle craftsmen became employed under the company. Émile-Maurice later obtained the exclusive rights to use the
zipper for
leather goods and clothing. He thus became the first to introduce the device in France.
[4][broken citation] The first leather golf jacket with a zipper, made by Hermès, was introduced in 1918.
[3][broken citation]
Throughout the 1920s, Émile-Maurice took control as sole head of the business and added a new accessory collection.
[4][5] And he groomed his three sons-in-law (Robert Dumas, Jean-René Guerrand and Francis Puech) as business partners. Hermès introduced its first leather garment, a zippered golfing jacket for the
Prince of Wales.
[6] After its exclusive use of the zipper, the mechanism was nicknamed
fermature Hermès.
[6] In 1922, the first leather
handbags were introduced. When Émile-Maurice's wife complained of not finding a suitable one to her liking, he took over the job,
[3][broken citation] creating an array of handbags himself.
[3][broken citation] In 1924, Hermès established a presence in the United States and opened two shops in French resorts
[where?]. In 1929, the first women's
couture apparel collection was previewed in Paris.
[3]
During the 1930s, Hermès produced some of its most recognized original goods.
[4][broken citation] In 1935, the leather
Sac à dépêches, later renamed the Kelly bag), was introduced, and, in 1937, the Hermès
carrés (scarves) were introduced.
[4][broken citation] Featuring a print of white-wigged ladies playing a popular period game, these custom-made accessory scarves were named
Jeu des Omnibus et Dames Blanches.
[5] Hermès oversaw the production of its scarves from beginning 'til end, purchasing raw Chinese silk, spinning it into
yarn, and weaving it into fabric twice as strong and heavy as most scarves on the market at the time.
[5] The company's scarf designers spent years creating new print patterns, individually screen-printed with vegetable dye.
[5] Each added color would be allowed a month to dry during the process of its creation before the next color was applied.
[5] Designers had over 200,000 different colors from which to choose. The most complicated design might feature 40 colors.
[5] In 1937, a dedicated scarf factory was established in
Lyon, France; the same year, Hermès celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Following the introduction of scarves, the accessory became integrated into
French culture.
[5] In 1938, the
Chaîne d’ancre bracelet and the riding jacket and outfit joined the classic collection. By this point, the company's designers began to draw inspirations from paintings, books, and
objets d’art.
[4][broken citation] The 1930s also witnessed Hermès's entrance into the United States market by offering its products in a Neiman Marcus department store in New York; however, it later withdrew.
[5] The year 1949 saw the launch of the Hermès silk tie. Also in the same year, the first perfume,
Eau d'Hermès, was produced.
During sometime in his management, Émile-Maurice summarized the Hermès philosophy as "Leather, sport, and a tradition of refined elegance."
[6]
[edit] Post-Émile-Maurice Hermès
Robert Dumas-Hermès (1898–1978) succeeded Émile-Maurice after his death in 1951, working in close collaboration with brother-in-law Jean-René Guerrand.
[4][broken citation] Technically, Dumas became the first man not directly descended from
Hermès père to lead the company due to his being connected to the family through marriage. Thus, he incorporated the Hermès last name into his own,
Dumas-Hermès. The company also acquired its duc-carriage-with-horse logo and signature orange boxes in the early '50s.
[4][broken citation] Dumas created original handbags, jewelry, and accessories and was particularly interested in design possibilities with the silk scarves.
[4][broken citation] Ironically, during the mid-20th century, scarf production slackened.
[5] World Tempus, a
Web portal dedicated to watchmaking, states that "brought to life by the magic wand of Annie Beaumel, the windows of the store on Faubourg Saint-Honoré became a theatre of enchantment and a Parisian meeting-place for international celebrities."
[4][broken citation] In 1956, a photo of Grace Kelly, who had become the new Princess of
Monaco) carrying the
Sac à dépêches bag appeared in
Life. Thus, the company — or possibly more like the public — renamed it the Kelly bag, and it became hugely popular. By the late 1950s, the Hermès logo had reached renown status.
[4][broken citation] In the 1960s, Hermès re-entered the U.S. market by offering its silk ties at
Neiman Marcus department stores.
[5] Chrystler Fisher, a former executive at Neiman Marcus, oversaw the Hermès American operations, tailoring to customers via a toll-free telephone number, customers' service department, and direct mail. The perfume business was made a subsidiary in 1961 concurrently with the introduction of the perfume
Calèche (named after a woman's large, folded, hooped hood worn in the 18th century).
[edit] The falter of Hermès and revival by Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermès
In the 1970s, Hermès opened multiple locations all over Europe, the United States, and Japan.
[4][broken citation] However, despite the company's apparent success, Hermès began to fall back throughout the 1970s in comparison to other competitors. This was duly because Hermès aimed to use only natural materials for its products, unlike other companies that strove to produce fashions of new man-made materials.
[5] During a two-week lapse in orders, the Hermès workrooms were unoccupied.
[5] The house formed itself as a holding company in 1976 and continued expansion worldwide. Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermès, the son of Robert Dumas-Hermès, became chairman in 1978, concentrating in the areas of silk, leather, and ready-to-wear, adding new product groups to those made with its traditional techniques. Unlike his father, Jean-Louis was connected to the Hermès maternally. The new leader extensively traveled worldwide.
[3][broken citation] After his marriage to Rena Greforiadès, he entered the buyer-training program at
Bloomingdale's, the New York department store. He had joined the family firm in 1964 and aided the ailing company by turning around its downhill progression.
[5] Dumas brought in designers Eric Bergére and Bernard Sanz to revamp the apparel collection, and, in collaboration, added unusual entries. Such were the
python motorcycle jackets and ostrich-skin jeans, which were dubbed as "a snazzier version of what Hermès has been all along." Annual sales in 1978, when Jean-Louis became head of the firm, were reported at US$50 million.
[5] In 1979, Hermès launched an advertising campaign featuring a young,
denim-clad woman wearing an Hermès scarf. The purpose was to introduce the Hermès brand to a new set of consumers. As one observer noted, "Much of what bears the still-discreet Hermès label changed from the object of an old person's
nostalgia to the subject of young peoples' dreams."
[5] Also in the 1970s, the watch subsidiary,
La Montre Hermès, was established in
Bienne, Switzerland.
Throughout the 1980s, Dumas strengthened the company's hold on its suppliers.,
[5] resulting in Hermès's gaining great stakes in prominent French
glassware,
silverware, and
tableware manufacturers as
Puiforcat,
St. Louis, and
Périgord.
[5] The company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1987 by "affirming its unique identity as a company both industrial and traditional, multi-sited and Parisian, traditional and innovative, and founded on a constant striving for excellence."
[5] By now women sporting Hermès accoutrement carried the Kelly bag, Constance clutch, brightly colored leathers, sensuous cashmeres, bold jewelry, tricolor spectator shoes, and silk ballet slippers.
[6] For men, the brand made leather jackets with sherpa lining and trim, gabardine blazers, dashing greatcoats, and richly patterned silk ties.
[6]
[edit] Hermès' growth
By 1990, annual sales were reported at US$460 million. The dramatic rise in revenue was mainly attributed to Dumas's strategy.
[5] Fifty percent of sales in the early 1990s were generated from Europe despite Dumas's program of geographical expansion. The United States contributed 11 percent, while the Asia/Pacific region made up one-third of sales.
[5] Estimated sales increased 23 percent from 1984 to 1994. However, future profits were expected to rise in only single-digit percentages.
Tactics from the 1980s made tableware one of Hermès's most promising business subsidiaries for the 1990s.
[5] The collection of Hermès goods was expanded in 1990 to include over 30,000 pieces. New materials used in the collection included porcelain and crystal.
[6] The company also took to releasing two new scarf collections each year throughout the 1990s, some of which were limited designs including
The Road (1994) and
The Sun(1995)).
[5] Hermès relocated its workshops and design studios to the outskirts of Paris, in Pantin, occupying a spacious contemporary glass building in 1992.
[4][broken citation] By June 1993, Hermès had gone public on the Paris
Bourse (stock exchange). The equity sale generated more excitement than the semiannual sales at Hermès's flagship store. The 425,000 shares floated at FFr 300 (US$55 a the time) were oversubscribed by 34 times.
[5] Dumas told
Forbes magazine that the equity sale helped lessen family tensions by allowing some members to liquidate their holdings without "squabbling over share valuations among themselves."
[5] During that year, Fisher resigned from his position as head of the U.S. operations and was succeeded by sixth-generation Hermès descendant Laurent Mommeja, who promised to double U.S. company sales by 1998.
[5] Shares were trading at FFr 600 by 1995.
[5]
To this point, the Hermès family still kept a strong hold of about 80 percent in stocks, placing Jean-Louis Dumas and the entire family on the
Forbes list of billionaires.
[5] Mimi Tompkins of
U.S. News & World Report called the company "one of Paris' best guarded jewels." In the years to follow, Dumas began to decrease Hermès franchises from 250 to 200 and increased company-owned stores from 60 to 100 to better control sales of its products.
[5] The plan was to cost about FFr 200 million in the short term but was to increase profits in the long term. Having around FFr 500 million to invest, Hermès continued ahead, targeting China for company-operated boutiques, finally opening a store in
Beijing in 1996. The following year,
Belgian modernist designer Martin Margiela was hired to supervise women's ready-to-wear.
[3][broken citation] By the late 1990s, Hermès continued to extensively diminish the number of
franchised stores, buying up those including in
Marseilles,
Padua, and Berlin and opening more company-operated boutiques such as those in
Las Vegas and
Atlanta). Fashion eyebrows were raised in September 1999 when Hermès paid FFr 150 million for a 35 percent stake in the Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion house.
[5] Greeted nonetheless as a positive development both for the relatively small Gaultier group and for Hermès, it was seen as part of a consolidation in the luxury goods market. In the latter part of the 1900s, the company encouraged its clientele to
faites nous rêver (make us dream), producing throughout the period some of the most artistically atypical orders.
[5]
