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Skins take to the air in handbag show
By Zhang Yi |
September 19, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SKIN is what goes deepest at "Leather Forever," an ongoing exhibition by Hermes at the French luxury house's Maison Hermes Shanghai flagship store on Huaihai Road M.
Curator Olivier Saillard, who is also a poet, wanted the experience to be "an entertaining, poetical and instructive one." Thus he hung the bags -- more than 350 of them -- in the air, suspended by invisible strings. Visitors must look up to admire the bags, including both vintage pieces from the house's archives and latest inventions from the workshop, as if they were some bewitching trapeze artists.
The up-in-the-air display also protects the valuable exhibits from being touched by curious visitors to the store, which is still under construction.
On his first visit to China, Saillard said he was amazed by the number of skyscrapers in Shanghai. It is not the same Shanghai he had imagined but another metropolitan city just like Tokyo or New York. Everyone seems to be in a hurry.
"I wanted to create a space in the middle of the busy city where people could slow down and take a little break, as if they were sauntering in a beautiful, natural garden," he said.
A giant Kelly bag (the famous Hermes bag named after film star Grace Kelly) welcomes visitors at the entrance and leads them to "the library of skins," an open bookshop-style exhibition area where all kinds of leather, from Togo calfskin to Niloticus crocodile, are expertly arranged in piles like fine paper in an art materials shop.
In a recreated workshop, a Hermes craftswoman from Paris works on a half-finished bag, demonstrating the skills and know-how of the leather house first set up as a saddler back in 1837.
"Each Hermes leather item is produced by one man only, from the beginning to the end," Saillard said. "To me, the process itself is very poetical.
"Usually people see the final works of the artists at an exhibition but they wouldn't have the chance to see how the works are made," he added. "But here you can."
Also on display are some ingenius leather creations from the past century, including an apple-shaped case perfect for carrying an apple and an apple knife, a "winged" saddle, a trunk for caviar and vodka, a violin case and a corset designed by Jean Paul Gualtier.
And of course there is an area dedicated to the brand's most famous Kelly and Birkin bags. There are nearly 20 of them in all kinds of sizes, made of all kinds of leather, one of which even been decorated by tiny cute leather-made hands and legs.
Saillard's favorite exhibit, however, is the vintage Verrou clutch bag closed by a silver bolt. The bag was spotted by Andy Warhol in the Paris flea market and he bought it as a gift for his muse, Ultra Violet, who returned it to Hermes after the artist's death.
"I love that clasp, which makes the bag look as if it had a lot of secrets -- open it and you will immediately enter a mysterious world," he said.
Saillard has also created a setting featuring swirling, fluttering long white dresses, on which a collection of vintage Hermes bags with distinctive clasps are displayed.
Date: Through to October 31
Address: 228 Huaihai Rd M.
Curator Olivier Saillard, who is also a poet, wanted the experience to be "an entertaining, poetical and instructive one." Thus he hung the bags -- more than 350 of them -- in the air, suspended by invisible strings. Visitors must look up to admire the bags, including both vintage pieces from the house's archives and latest inventions from the workshop, as if they were some bewitching trapeze artists.
The up-in-the-air display also protects the valuable exhibits from being touched by curious visitors to the store, which is still under construction.
On his first visit to China, Saillard said he was amazed by the number of skyscrapers in Shanghai. It is not the same Shanghai he had imagined but another metropolitan city just like Tokyo or New York. Everyone seems to be in a hurry.
"I wanted to create a space in the middle of the busy city where people could slow down and take a little break, as if they were sauntering in a beautiful, natural garden," he said.
A giant Kelly bag (the famous Hermes bag named after film star Grace Kelly) welcomes visitors at the entrance and leads them to "the library of skins," an open bookshop-style exhibition area where all kinds of leather, from Togo calfskin to Niloticus crocodile, are expertly arranged in piles like fine paper in an art materials shop.
In a recreated workshop, a Hermes craftswoman from Paris works on a half-finished bag, demonstrating the skills and know-how of the leather house first set up as a saddler back in 1837.
"Each Hermes leather item is produced by one man only, from the beginning to the end," Saillard said. "To me, the process itself is very poetical.
"Usually people see the final works of the artists at an exhibition but they wouldn't have the chance to see how the works are made," he added. "But here you can."
Also on display are some ingenius leather creations from the past century, including an apple-shaped case perfect for carrying an apple and an apple knife, a "winged" saddle, a trunk for caviar and vodka, a violin case and a corset designed by Jean Paul Gualtier.
And of course there is an area dedicated to the brand's most famous Kelly and Birkin bags. There are nearly 20 of them in all kinds of sizes, made of all kinds of leather, one of which even been decorated by tiny cute leather-made hands and legs.
Saillard's favorite exhibit, however, is the vintage Verrou clutch bag closed by a silver bolt. The bag was spotted by Andy Warhol in the Paris flea market and he bought it as a gift for his muse, Ultra Violet, who returned it to Hermes after the artist's death.
"I love that clasp, which makes the bag look as if it had a lot of secrets -- open it and you will immediately enter a mysterious world," he said.
Saillard has also created a setting featuring swirling, fluttering long white dresses, on which a collection of vintage Hermes bags with distinctive clasps are displayed.
Date: Through to October 31
Address: 228 Huaihai Rd M.
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