Love, Love, Love Hermes!

There is nothing more chic' to me than an Hermes' scarf.

The colors are so saturated on the rich silk backgrounds. The patterns tell a story. I love to stand over the scarf case at their stores and look at all the colorful folded scarves. It is perfection. They look great tied on a bag, wrapped around the neck, head, or waist, or used as a headband.

I have been collecting them since I was a little girl. For real! My parents had a very eccentric friend named Ariane Sheppard. She was from Germany and would often come to stay with us for lengthy periods of time and to my mother's dismay she would gift me bizarre things that were often far beyond my age. (Reference said scarf.)

I believe I was about 8, maybe 9, when Ariane gave me my first Hermes' scarf. I am not sure how I even knew what it was, or meant for that matter, but I did know it was special. I coveted it and still have it today. It is probably my favorite of my small scarf collection. I also knew to hide the present from my mother.

It stayed hidden until I decided Teddy needed a head scarf to wear similar to the way my grandmother would wear hers. I forgot to put it away when I was finished playing and left Teddy dressed in his "Jackie O chic-ness". My mom, of course, found my teddy bear wrapped in Hermes and she swiftly stripped him and tucked the scarf away until a much later time. Poor Teddy.

My obsession grew when I was a student at Lake Forest College. I would often babysit for a hip family who lived in the town of Lake Forest. The first time I was at their home I fell in love with the way the wife had mounted and framed 5 of her scarves in their Dining Room. I thought it was the most glamorous thing I had ever seen. So decadent.

I have later learned that Hermes' highly recommends against this as the silk rots under the glass, but it looked great! Sometimes it is fun not to be so practical.

So imagine my delight when I heard that Thames & Hudson is publishing the book, The Hermes Scarf: History & Mystique. It has been written by Nadine Coleno, who last year wrote the fabulous book Amazing Cartier: Jewelry Design since 1937, so you know it will be great.

The book chronicles hundreds of their classic scarf patterns and the different colors in which they have been printed over the years. Above is a peak into the book and I can't wait to see more. It is available for pre-ordering on http://www.amazon.com/ for a huge discount. I have already ordered mine!!!

Cheers,

BBS

all images above taken from Google Image