STYLE Edit: how Hermès’ Enchaînements Libres jewellery ‘liberates’ women
The French high fashion maison – with its origins as harness maker – creates a stunning collection of 29 different interconnecting chains
One might intuitively associate a chain with restraint or a lack of freedom.
Yet when the origin story of Hermès, the French high fashion maison – and its motifs – are so deeply connected to the artisanal métier of harness-making, horse-saddling and the nautical anchor, the chain perhaps links to something more enlightened, more avant-garde.
The chain is what links scales and categories. It connects and interconnects opposites, it attaches and liberates; it evokes strength, but also fluidity and softness
Pierre Hardy, creative director, Hermès Jewellery, says the chains can be liberating.
“The chain is what links scales and categories,” says Hardy, who offers chains in 29 variants for the Enchaînements Libres jewellery collection.
“It connects and interconnects opposites, it attaches and liberates; it evokes strength, but also fluidity and softness.”
Hermès previewed the Enchaînements Libres jewellery collection in Hong Kong on May 28 with a dance show held at Asia Society, in Admiralty.
Performers were dressed in all-black, allowing the audience to focus on the diverse sculptural possibilities of the chain-themed jewellery collection.
Hardy, who was once a contemporary dancer, says: “These pieces of jewellery are conceived as extensions of the body.
“I always seek to understand how they will actually be articulated, how they will flex and move with the body. They reveal gestures, enhance postures.”