Hermès Takes
London
The Dumas cousins are known for taking their time. That changed one weekend in 2009 when, in an uncharacteristically impulsive move, they bought a late 18th century property in London. After extensive work, 166 Bond Street—the largest Hermès boutique in Europe—is finally open to the public.
(Opening) “The horse is our main companion, but the snail sometimes characterizes our speed.” It may not be how you’d expect the CEO of one of the world’s most storied luxury businesses to describe his family company, but Axel Dumas has never been one for pomp—and Hermès has always prided itself on painstaking, time-consuming attention to every facet of its €200 billion empire. Although Dumas’ off-the-cuff candor may have the international press guffawing into their teacups, the scale of the undertaking is no joke. Some 2000 sqm spanning six Grade II-listed buildings, five floors, and 55 rooms, have been converted by the design studio RDAI, led by Denis Montel, into an idiosyncratic London abode for the French titan. Each of the house’s 16 métiers, from saddles to silks, has its own color scheme, but no room is alike; it’s the little touches everywhere that turn a visit to the store into a veritable treasure hunt.
Counterintuitively I start at the top: Finding myself next to an elevator, once Monsieur Dumas and his cousin, Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas, have officially declared the boutique open, I make a dash for the roof. The highest story is a by-invitation-only space dedicated to Émile Hermès (1871-1951), under whose leadership the Parisian horse harness workshop bloomed into a global enterprise. It evokes his offices at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré—now a museum for his vast collection—from which select pieces have been borrowed and transplanted across the Channel. The rooftop garden features Hermès’ flag-bearing horseman, the Artificier, gazing up towards Oxford Street. Inside, the walls of the private dining room are covered in a blue and white baize that conjures Victorian seaside jaunts. A secret staircase takes me to the floor below where buttery-soft calfskin decks await; next door is the repair atelier, where restoration expert Alexandra Cappe mends bags onsite, a wall of threads in every color at her disposal.
“The horse is our main companion, but the snail sometimes characterizes our speed.”
It’s easy to lose your bearings in this Aladdin’s cave, but that’s part of the fun. With its maze of passages, hidden shortcuts, and a series of salons off to the side—I forget on which floor—those feeling a little overwhelmed (guilty) can sink into an Art Deco armchair and await refreshments that the endearingly accommodating waitstaff procure seemingly out of thin air. Then it’s off for another round of admiring the finery, as well as the art: 500 pieces handpicked by Pierre-Alexis Dumas and liberally sprinkled across the property. In the womenswear section, I’m drawn to a photographic portrait of Lee Miller (could it be by Man Ray?), and wonder at the connection—perhaps the fact that she famously used a Hermès Baby portable typewriter? Not an actual Hermès product, but still…
The past melds seamlessly with the present here at 166 Bond Street. A 19th-century mosaic, discovered on one of the floors, has been meticulously restored; one of the boutique’s showstoppers is a gilded Victorian elevator, brought back to life by the UK’s sole remaining mechanic equipped to deal with such antiquities. In the atrium—once an open-air courtyard—a spiral staircase snakes up from the ground floor. It was originally commissioned by the space’s previous proprietor and designed by Sir Norman Foster, who agreed to extend it by two stories for Hermès.
“Our grandfather always called Hermès the most British of French brands,” the Dumas cousins recalled in their welcome speech. How proud he would have been of this new London landmark.
