Swimming at Hermès
After one hundred and seventy years on the right bank, Hermès has decided to cross the Seine and embrace the future with a new store. A forgotten art déco swimming pool built in 1935 that kept its original mosaics and décor, listed as a Historic Monument since 2005, has become the new Hermès concept store on the left bank of Paris. A stunning volume under glass skylights on three levels in a very pure and elegant architecture. All the existing decorative elements have been carefully renovated and you realize as you enter the discreet front door on rue de Sèvres, the challenge offered to the designers to conceive a luxury store in such a place. Where the elegant guests of the nearby Hotel Lutetia use to enjoy water sports are now standing four huts. Four pavillions with an organic design, in which some will recognise forms from plants or the animal world. Others will liken these huts to the nests of tisserin birds. They are self supporting structures that rest on a woven woden laths rising up to more than 27feet and they display the new home collection enlarged with the now famous china, flatware, linens and towels collections. On the side, on one of the galleries is a tea room and a bookstore expending the reasons to spend time in this timeless kingdom of elegance.
A Hermès « experience”, mix of tradition, contemporary craftsmanship, and an ever-evolving definition of luxury.
Hermès
17 rue de Sèvres 75006 Paris
www.hermes.com
Crédit Photo: Hermès/RDAI
