| Thierry Hermès | |
| Birth Name: | 10 January 1801 |
| Birth Place: | Crefeld, Roer Department, French First Republic (present day Krefeld, Germany) |
| Death Place: | Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, French Third Republic |
| Death Date: | 10 January 1878 (aged 77) |
| Spouse: | Christine Pétronille Pierrart |
| Children: | Charles-Émile Hermès |
| Parents: | Thierry Hermès Agnese Kuhnen |
Thierry Hermès (in French pronounced as /tjɛʁi ɛʁmɛs/; 10 January 1801 – 10 January 1878) was a French businessman of German origin who founded Hermès International and acquired the title as a fashion house designer.[1]
Thierry Hermès was born in 1801 in the city of Krefeld, Germany, which at the time was part of Napoleon's First Republic, earning Hermès French citizenship.[2] He was the sixth child of his parents who were innkeepers.[3] After losing his entire family to disease and war, Hermès moved to France in 1821 as an orphan.[4] Using his gift in leatherworking, he opened his saddle and harness shop in 1837 located in the Paris neighborhood known as Grands Boulevards.[5]
In 1837, Thierry Hermès founded the Hermès company as a manufacturer of horse harnesses on the Rue Basse du Rempart in Paris.[6] Hermès specialized in the horse harnesses required by society traps, caleches, and carriages.[7] He built his business on the strength of a stitch that could only be done by hand.[8] The saddle stitch was completed when two needles worked two waxed linen threads in tensile opposition.[9] After opening up his shop, his clients were the rich which included: the Parisian beau monde and European royalty, the emperor Napoleon III and his empress, Eugenie.[10] The business soon went from harness and saddles to trunks, handbags, and zippers.[11]
Hermès had one son with his wife Christine Pétronille Pierrart (1805-1896) who they named Charles-Emile.[12] [13] Charles-Emile had two sons of his own, Adolphe and Emile-Maurice, who were involved in the family business building elite clientele in Europe, North Africa, Russia, America, and Asia.[14] [15] After Hermès started his harness company, his son Charles-Emile Hermès took over the family business moving the store to 24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.[16] This meant that the store was in proximity to wealthy clients.[17] [18] Adolphe left Emile with the business because he believed that the company didn't have a long future in the era of carriages.[19] Emile-Maurice noticed the demand for saddlery, leading him to direct Hermès to make "saddle stitched" leather goods and trunks for the customers who traveled by car, train, ship.[20] After realizing the company was diving into the age of automobiles, Emile-Maurice acquired a two-year patent for the zipper which was known as the "Hermès Fastener."[21] Once the zipper was introduced, the clothing era was transformed.[22] Other businesses such as Coco Chanel wanted to learn from them due to their rapid growth and popularity.[23] Emile Hermès' sons-in-law, Robert Dumas-Hermès (1898-1978) and Jean-René Guerrand-Hermès (1901-1993) took over the company in 1950.[24] The contributions from his children and grandchildren influenced the company."[25] In 1993, the company went public but 80 percent of the shares were controlled by Hermès family members.[26]
Hermès has many innovations which are still known to this day.[27] The Hermès zipper founded in 1923 is used in many of the bags today.[28] The silk Hermès used for jockeys' blouses developed the first silk scarf, "Jeu des Omnibus et Dames blanches" in 1923.[29] Around the 1930s, Hermès International launched several items that became classics, including the large crocodile handbag known later as the Kelly, named for Grace Kelly.[30] [31] The company later developed men's neckties, watches, and new scarf designs.[32] Today, Hermès features products like charms (starting at $40) and an oversize panda-bear bean-bag made of Clémnce bull-calf leather (most expensive at $100,000).[33] One of the known classics, the Birkin, was named after actress Jane Birkin and created by Jean-Louis Dumas in 1984.[34] Today, Hermès has 283 stores worldwide.[35] Since 1923, Hermès has a color theme every year for their collections, creating limited edition items like the "Year of the River" (2005) silk scarf.[36]