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Kavita Daswani

THE six-floor Hermes boutique on the Rue Faubourg St Honore is crowded with hundreds of tourists, even during quieter times of the day.

 Certainly, what the fashion and accessories company has to offer makes shopping there an attractive proposition.

   Associated with classic, conservative bags, belts and scarves, the Hermes 1994-95 collection looks brighter and more contemporary than before.

    Earlier this year, Hermes launched its Sun theme in just about all its products, in motif, print or colour.

  Due to the success of the line, the vibrancy of the collection is being carried over.

   In fact, when company president Jean-Louis Dumas decided to go ahead with the spirited line, he said: 'What better way than to look on this source of heat and life with a new eye, so as to venture out in quite a different and, if possible, a better way?'     For a deluxe fashion and accessory house which has established its reputation on all things country and equestrian - the company began making harnesses in 1837 - it has only been in the past 15 years or so that Hermes has come to be associated with what is modern and wearable.

    While newer additions like tableware and stationery are admired, it is undoubtedly the scarves, bags and ties that make Hermes a sought-after label.

    In fact, the Kelly bag, named after the late Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, often needs to be ordered in advance, such is the demand. It costs US$3,000.

   It is particularly popular in crocodile or lizard, big or small.

     Hermes ties have often featured animals on pretty pastel shades.

   In its most recent collection, all manner of sun-related objects feature in neckwear - camels, palm trees, watermelons, umbrellas and cherries, usually on a background of bright red, orange and yellow.

   Jewellery includes bracelets made of raffia with gleaming gold and silver buckles and agate-studded pieces and there are, of course, the usual range of Panama hats.

    Certainly, if done by anyone else, the colours used by Hermes could be taken as an assault on the visual senses.

   A full, vivid sun is superimposed on to a background of cobalt blue silk in an exquisite new scarf. High-heeled, chunky, slip-on sandals come in brilliant orange and yellow.

   Coin purses are fashioned out of leather slices of kiwi, a strawberry or a small bunch of bananas.

   Salt and pepper shakers in sterling silver are in the shape of sand buckets.

    But it is, perhaps, in the large, square-shaped silk scarves in which Hermes truly excels: fiery sun gods are surrounded by a crescent moon and a sprinkling of stars; and large hot-air balloons fill a pink sky.



Fiery colours, motifs enliven exquisite silk scarves