The french couture house Hermes elevated the craft skills (of saddle makers) to high art,producing coveted bags of an iconic status and hand-stitched perfection throughout the twentieth century in their Parisian atelier.
One of the oldest family-owned and controlled companies in france,it was established in 1837 by Thierry Hermes,who opened a workshop in the Grands Boulevards quarter of paris supplying horse harnesses for carriages.It was a bussiness founded on the principles of excellent craftsmanship,perticularly in the execution of the saddle stitch,a process whereby two needles worked two waxed linen threads in tensile opposition.
Thierry's son Charles-Emile moved the company to their current home at 24,rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore,where he begun retailing saddlery.
Having a global reputation for excellence the company offered the Haut a Courroies (high belts) bag especially designed to transport riding gear (boots,saddle and hunting equiptment).
At the end of the centuty the horse gave way to the automobile as the major means of transport and Emile-Maurice (grandson of the original Hermes) anticipated that the company would need to diversify from it's equestrian roots,a conviction that was reinforced by the meeting with Henry Ford on a visit to th United States.
While in Canada Emile-Maurice foresaw the potential of a kind of zip used on the canvas roof of cars,and obtained an exclusive two years European patternon it's use.
A zipped golf jacket made for the Prince of Wales was also a revolution at clothing design,while in 1922 the first leather handbag were intorduced at the request of Emile-Maurice's wife and in 1923 the Bodice bag (initially called the Bugatti bag after the racing car) was the first in history to feature a zip.
The sandle bag,the "little tall bag with two handles" from 1892,was redesigned as a handbag in 1935 and was eventually named the Kelly when Grace Kelly appeared with it on her arms on the cover of Time magzine in 1956.In1958 a bucket-shaped feed bag with a gusset and a narrow strap,christened the Trim,was popularized by Jackie Onassis of her much publicized sojourn on Capri in the late 1960's and the Birkin bag was introduced in 1984.
The Birkin bag
The Kelly bag
text
from the book indicated below
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