More than just a scarf

Hermès silk scarves are not merely fetishes for the trendy, who want a bright and impressive fashion accessory for their image. Every handmade scarf (since 1937 Hermès designers have created some 950 subjects) is also a true work of art for the many connoisseurs of those exhibits that have been gathered together over the years in the Hermès collection. Indeed, people who know a thing or two about silk and silk printing look at these scarves as if they were paintings: they put them in frames and use them not only to decorate themselves, but the walls of their homes, while artists and designers use them for expensive interior dècor. If you've ever held one of these silk marvels in your hands, you will easily understand those avid aficionados that claim to read the secret messages and images encoded in the fantastic, mind-bending puzzles that are printed on to the scarves as if they were the text of a book. And if you only knew how these amazing carrès, as the 90x90cm square scarves are called, are created, and what the patterns selected for the latest Hermès collection mean in the minds of their creators...

Work on a scarf begins with an idea forming in the mind of the artist. He makes sketches and develops his theme, and then consults with Jean-Louis Dumas, Hermès' art director, who is in charge of each new design as it is created. Work on a new design and its embodiment in silk takes from six months to a year, during which time the design is worked out to the finest detail and the scarf is examined closely to see how it will look opened up, round the neck, and tied by various methods. Only after this is a decision taken as to whether the subject can be added to the Hermès collection. For his painstaking work, the artist is permitted to have his name included on the finished product alongside the inscription 'Hermès' and the title of the work that are there to protect it from forgeries. At times these three names are so fantastically encoded that very particular attention is required to find them in the pattern. But they can always be found, if you look hard enough.

After the project has been approved, it is the turn of the engraver to work on the design. He transfers the pattern on to a stencil, which means that he has to organize the colour screening. Each colour requires a special plate, and sometimes around 40 plates are required for one scarf, so choosing them is a very labour intensive and complex business. Connoisseurs know that the finer the details of the painting on the scarf and the more colours it uses, the more unique it is. Choosing the colours for a pattern is also no easy task, and one for a whole team of specialists. They have a palette of 75,000 base colours to choose from, and by mixing them they can invent more. The colours are mixed by hand, and sometimes they have to test around fifty combinations before finding the one they want. Each specific pattern can take 10-15 colour solutions – thus the complex game of colour patience is played out.

The factory where the scarves are made is in Lyons, the centre of France's silk industry. The silk cocoons from which the thread will be spun for making the scarves come from Brazil. Chinese silk, which can be of very good or very poor quality depending on the province it came from, was rejected, since the risk was considered to be too high.

The final stage involves sewing the border. The face side of the scarf is tucked over on itself all round and is then sewn by hand, with each scarf taking precisely 32 minutes. When the process is completed (the master printers prepare 2-4 samples of each colour range), the product has to pass through a strict control procedure. If the slightest mistake is detected, the scarf is burned: the quality must always be immaculate. Only now – some two years after the original idea was conceived – can the scarf be wrapped in silk paper and placed in the company's orange box. The cycle is complete. Twice a year – in spring and autumn – new designs are added to the Hermès scarf collection. At the same time, subjects that have become popular are done in new colours, and classic models enlarged by variations on the themes of harnesses and saddles or naval themes, like frigates, caravels and sailor's knots and hitches. Every new collection always contains a horse theme: they can be circus horses, African zebras, stylized horses, as if done by a small child, and even 'imaginary horses' – there is no end to the variations. The main thing is that tradition should be kept up. In this case it goes back to the Hermès logo, which was created on the basis of a drawing by the French artist, Alfreda de Drey, and to what this fashion House first specialized in – the manufacture of expensive accessories for horse-riding.

Hermès scarves can also be pleated (the carrès plissès are made in the same ateliers that once made immaculate collars and cuffs for the crowned heads of Europe). Each scarf has precisely 108 pleats and can be two coloured (with an ideally printed border) and even waterproof. But the 90x90cm carrè silk neck scarf, which is made by hand in Lyons has become a real legend. Twice a year collectors look forward to seeing the new series of scarves like book lovers wait for the latest publication of their favourite author, or art lovers the latest picture from a famous artist. They have firmly accepted what Hermès has been telling them for the last 67 years: "a scarf is the launching pad for an unbelievable flight of fancy".

The 'Les Mecanique des Idees' Scarf

The artist, Christine Henri, demonstrates how an idea is born. The creative process begins with the artist in a state of complete uncertainty and emptiness, for only thus can a new idea take root. The symbols depicted in the squares are images in the process of formation. Some of the shapes are recognizable, others still burred and indistinct – they appeal to our imagination. In each square you can see a potential thought, but it has withdrawn into itself. For one idea to join up with another, you need the gears that will put the whole creative laboratory into motion – this is the World of Ideas. In the borders between the squares and the gears, the shapes are vague and hazy – this is the World of Imagination, where contrary to the rational world absolutely anything at all can exist.

The 'Faites vos Jeux' Scarf

You make your own luck! The scarf designed by Karen Petrossyan is a veritable mosaic of gambling fever. The complex patience has almost come out. So place your bets on the square scarf! The careful observer will notice that someone in this game has been dealt an incredible hand, but the initiated observer who knows the secrets will realize who the two players that hide themselves under the mysterious initials written on the page of a notebook really are.

The 'Tohu-Bohu' Scarf

Formlessness. Claudia Stuhlhofer- Maier constructed her design on the principle of the mandala – a geometric diagram used for meditation and invoking the gods. Its colours and concentric circles symbolize the structure of the universe. This scarf is a mandala for the god, Hermes.

The 'Cheval Surprise' Scarf

Let your mind wander. Look at the drawing thought up by Dmitri Rybalchenko and try to remember: there are unexpected subjects hidden in its depths. Several spots are enough to disturb the quiet... These spots organize the space and serve as a launching pad for an incredible flight of fancy. What you see in the black dots on the scarf could have come to the mind of the artist, Alfred de Drey, who was known for his beautiful drawings of horses.

Cigar Clan 2'2005 vol.1. Svetlana Tarasova