Venture beyond

This year’s Hermès theme is Venture beyond (L’appel du large) .

Something happens to me out of nowhere. At the turn of a street corner, a page, a sensation. Something from outside myself, from an otherness, whether near or far, coming to meet me. Something that speaks to me, invites me, entices me. It could be quite insignificant: a smell, a word, a face, a sound, a taste, a texture, an image, an object – it doesn’t matter. And all at once I’m awake, needed, summoned. I could turn away and avoid this summoning call, sink back into the comfort of my daily routine, but then what would I be missing out on? Isn’t this life itself knocking at my door? Isn’t this the world encroaching on my most private self?

A call to venture beyond is anything that takes us out of ourselves to approach the unknown – something ventured, something wonderful gained. You could say that, at Hermès, we’re congenitally receptive to this call, ever since a young man by the name of Thierry Hermès left his native Krefeld for the promised land of Paris at the start of the nineteenth century. For a house such as ours, creativity has always been a path that leads to the unexpected, to discovery and beauty. It is how we respond to the call, and this response adds new weight to the call itself. Everything that makes our imagination overflow at Hermès arises from this invitation to “venture beyond”.

Pierre-Alexis Dumas
Artistic Director of Hermès