Hermès Presents 2022 Home Collection

Hermès Presents 2022 Home Collection showcased in four structures at Milan Design Week 2022 recently. The quest for lightness, like a challenge to gravity, is incarnated by the creation of objects for the home. These constructions, in the shape of water towers, are light despite their monumental proportions; made of wood and covered with translucent coloured paper, they radiate light. Inside, each object expresses know‑how that draws power from precision.

 

For the first time, textiles are the underlying theme running through a home collection. Five creations form the fabric of this manifesto for lightness. They are all made from cashmere, one of the house’s favourite materials. This infinitely delicate natural fibre combines a taut hand with bright colours. Textiles explore different manufacturing techniques: strips of cashmere form the design of ethereal plaids; squares woven and dyed by hand make up a great patchwork of shimmering colours; geometric shapes assembled using a relinking technique evoke stained-glass windows; a large, quilted bed cover brings colours, patchwork and traditional quilting technique into dialogue.

Objects, porcelain and furniture assert their singularity: a cut and folded sheet of leather with hand-painted decoration becomes a centrepiece; porcelain plates reflect sunlight; a canework seat affords a chair as much delicacy as it does strength. Lightness of line produces timeless style, as these creations demonstrate. Our perception changes as light plays over them when backlit against the scenographic structures: poetic giants and anchoring points for these small miracles of equilibrium.

The Surface bed cover is constructed from remarkable cashmere hexagons that combine patchwork with the precision of quilting, crafts in which American artist Carson Converse is an expert.

The graphic dimension of the Construction plaid, inspired by Gianpaolo Pagni’s designs, is expressed directly through the fabric. Cashmere panels are assembled by relinking, a technique borrowed from couture.

The PLI'H centrepieces Who would guess that this leather sheet conceals a centrepiece? It is carefully cut and folded, a few essential points discreetly joined together and some elemental patterns are applied freehand with a brush.

The T-shaped Coulisse table lamp is a simple bamboo frame covered with parachute fabric, embraced by a steel circle from which soft light emanates. The beauty of this lamp, created by Tomás Alonso, lies in its agile forms and the emphasis it places on the interplay of space and lightness.

In Japan, karumi means simplicity, lightness and purity, like the sleek, unbroken lines of this graceful Karumi stool designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza. Its structure and seat, in curved bamboo and carbon fibre, combine lightness with strength.