Hermès invites nearly fifty artists to reimagine its heritage, proving slow luxury thrives when artists lead the story.
A horse made of cardboard. A silk scarf unraveling into light. A watch hidden inside a building that opens like a puzzle box. Welcome to Hermès’ latest collaboration with artists. In an era where every brand is clamouring to ‘say something’, Hermès is quietly letting others speak for it. It’s a rare move from a French luxury brand to turn the spotlight towards artists rather than celebrities and slogans. These illustrators, sculptors, animators and performers have taken over everyone’s Instagram feed by translating the soul of the brand into meaningful eye-catching stories.
“As a child, I felt compelled to make worlds,” says Nonamey, a Portland-based Indigenous trans artist who reimagined the Manhattan Hermès flagship this year as a pink equestrian dreamscape. Her installation of sculpted horses and surreal landscapes offered a playful twist on the house’s heritage. “I wanted to turn craftsmanship into a kind of fantasy,” she adds. That sensibility (reverent yet irreverent) captures exactly what Hermès seems to be cultivating: a dialogue between tradition and imagination.
(Picture credits: @nonameynonamey on instagram)
"Fondation d’entreprise Hermès,” a philanthropic offshoot that has quietly championed contemporary art for two decades, lies at the core of this approach. The Artists’ Residencies Programme gives emerging talents a place beside the brand’s artisans. A curatorial note cites Saint Augustine: “there are three times: a time present of things past; a time present of things present; and a time present of things future.” Each artist is invited to explore this philosophy through material and time making this whole collaboration feel more subversive in an industry obsessed with speed.
Hermès’ products are desirable because they reconnect people to their humanity. Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès’ artistic director says,”the customer feels the presence of the person who crafted the object.” That presence which is present in the touch of a hand, the patience of a process is what Hermès hopes these artists will translate into modern visual languages.
Beyond the physical residencies, Hermès has been commissioning visual artists and animators to re-interpret brand objects as narrative elements. The idea is that the handbag, scarf or watch becomes less a product than a frame for story. Dumas captures this when he says: “Astonishment is a human quality: it’s the ability to wonder, to surprise ourselves, and to reinvent ourselves.” That spirit shows up in playful animations, surreal window displays, and other micro-installations where Hermès objects take on symbolic lives. The effect is subtle, intelligent and most importantly, fun.
(A picture from Annie Choi’s clip. Picture credits: WeRSM.)
On Instagram, that translation has become something of a phenomenon. In May, Hermès released a series of short animated films where its Paris headquarters metamorphoses into a surreal toy box. The artist Annie Choi directed one such clip. An equestrian statue morphs into a key that unlocks the façade, revealing the Hermès H08 watch glimmering like a secret. Visual stories such as this where Hermès objects play supporting roles in larger imaginative worlds, is what makes them stand out in a feed of noise.
The result is not merely content, but commentary. Hermès has found a way to stay relevant and prove that ‘slow luxury’ can thrive in fast moving feeds. That decision has also proven remarkably effective. In 2024, Hermès recorded an 11.3% increase in third-quarter sales, while commissioning nearly 50 artists across visual, digital, and performance disciplines. The commercial success, though, seems almost incidental. What’s really being built is a cultural ecosystem where artists and artisans share authorship.
“Connection,” “world-building,” “presence” are the words that recur throughout Hermès’ current creative vocabulary. And yet the most striking thing is what remains unsaid. The brand never explains too much. It leaves room for wonder, for the imagination to step in. Giving artists a voice inside its atelier, the brand proves that they care about what they make, how it's made, who makes it and how it's told. And in doing so, Hermès might just be redefining what luxury means for the next generation.
