SPECIAL ACTIVITY

A board game tracing Thierry Hermès’s adventures

The current window display is Journey within: A look at the creative journey of Thierry Hermès. Its colourful, playful world extends inside Ginza Maison Hermès.

Starting on 1 August, a specially designed board game, The 25 Adventures of Thierry, will be available to play in a workshop to be held in the home métiers on the 2nd floor of the building. It promises a summer full of wonder and excitement.

Three clues
to the journey

Lanterne Hermès invites you to preview the board game The 25 Adventures of Thierry, currently playable at Ginza Maison Hermès, through the following three questions that players must answer on certain spaces. Hints can be found in the stories we’ve shared on Lanterne Hermès in the past. How many questions will you answer correctly?

No.3

Find the saddle stitching

Clue No.3

The saddle stitch, a craft technique with roots in saddlery, has been mastered by generations of Hermès artisans. Its characteristic lines are visible on our bags and other leather objets. Where in Ginza Maison Hermès is there an example of saddle stitching that you can actually touch?

The picture frames
The sofas in the café
The staircase handrails

Clue No.3

For those playing the board game in the Ginza Maison Hermès

Correct answer:
move forward 1 space.
Incorrect answer:
go back 1 space.

Running alongside the interior of the glass block façade of Ginza Maison Hermès are the staircases connecting each floor. Their handrails are carefully wrapped in leather in an elegant, understated shade of étoupe grey and finished with hand-sewn saddle stitching. Be sure to check them out and feel their texture for yourself.

No.8

Count the glass blocks

Clue No.8

Take a look through the telescope of Thierry Hermès, and you’ll see Jean-Louis Dumas, the company’s fifth chairman and inheritor of his family’s inquisitive spirit, dreaming of a maison in Ginza. His dream came true in 2001 in the form of a building composed of innumerable glass blocks that sparkle in the city lights. How many glass blocks, large and small, make up the glittering façade of Ginza Maison Hermès?

About 18,000
About 5,000
About 1,000

Clue No.8

For those playing the board game in the Ginza Maison Hermès

Correct answer:
move forward 1 space.
Incorrect answer:
go back 1 space.

Architect Renzo Piano designed Ginza Maison Hermès, which opened in 2001. The building façade features some 18,000 glass blocks that refract the lights of the city to give the building an ever-changing appearance. It shifts by the hour, the season, and the weather and presents a completely different face during the day and at night.

No.13

A tree rooted in the sky

Clue No.13

You’ve nearly made it to the top of the Maison! How did Jean-Louis Dumas envision this building, which so warmly illuminates the city? Imagine the concept that suddenly came to Dumas as he strolled through a park full of lush greenery.

A honeyed apple
An upside-down tree
A colourful bouquet

Clue No.13

For those playing the board game in the Ginza Maison Hermès

Correct answer:
move forward 1 space.
Incorrect answer:
go back 1 space.

Jean-Louis Dumas envisioned the Maison as an upside-down tree. On the upper floors, an art gallery and a small cinema—cultural spaces common on the streets of Paris—serve as “roots” that absorb culture and history, as well as new creative trends and contemporary sensibilities. These nutrients flow through the “trunk”—comprising studios and staff offices—and bear “fruit” in the form of the Hermès objets made available to visitors on the boutique floors.