thehermèsscarf:history&mystique by three feet—and anything worn by royalty can
Fashions come and go, but the Hermès scarf has hardlybe bohemian. Butas the bookdemonstrates,
never gone out of style. For seven decades it has inventiveness is what the scarves are all about.
been the accessory of choice for sophisticated Paging through more than 100 designs (of the 2,000
ladies, whether Grace Kelly
or so that have been made)
(who famously used one as a
sling after breaking an arm),
Queen Elizabeth II, Jackie O,
or Oprah. Its permanence
is such that a gorgeous
new book, The Hermès
Scarf, uses a single celebrity
image to cement its status:
Romy Schneider, a cycling-
themed scarf draped over
her shoulders, standing
alongside a grinning Alain
Delon in 1958. As Pierre-Alexis
is like strolling through every There are equestrian scarves (the company did, after all, begin by crafting saddles), historical scarves, scarves with birds Therearemarvelous trompe l’oeil images, like a purse’s contents as seen through
wing of a grand museum.
and scarves with fireworks.
an airport X-ray machine.
They’re playful, colorful,
Dumas, the Hermès artistic
innovative, and striking—
director whose grandfather Robert Dumas created minutely detailed or boldly simple. And as all the
the Hermès scarf in 1937, says in the book’s foreword, scarves are still silkscreened and stitched by hand,
“Our little squares of silk are still renowned for their they’re indisputably a labor of love. As is the book,
spirit of independence, their bohemian chic and whose author, Nadine Coleno, asks, “How best to
their sense of invention.”
describe it? How to put into words that elegance,
that delightful languor?” The designs say it all n
He’s being cheeky, of course. The squares of silk Lawrence Levi, The Hermès Scarf, by Nadine Coleno,
