Les Vitrines Hèrmes
THE OUTSIDE WORLD ANDTHE WORLD INSIDE.SURREAL AND SUPER REAL. MISE EN SCENE ET TROMPE-L'OEIL. THIS BOOK IS AWAKING DREAM. THE MOST INCREDIBLE WINDOWSWERE ALWAYS BY LEILA MENCHARI FOR HERMES,RUE FAUBOURG SAINT-HONORE.
This book is the book. Published in 1999. Leila Menchari has created the window displays for the Hermes flasghip store on Rue Faubourg Saint-Honore since 1977. That's twenty years of flying horses, dancing horses, underwater wedding ceremonies, diamond mines, more horses, and motorbikes.
Tangerine dream. We love this window. We would like to think that it was in response to the scooter smash and grabs on the world's most expensive shopping streets that Menchari parked an Hermes Yamaha in the window... but probably not. See how deeply impressive the book is on this link.
Double negative. Sometimes less is definitely more. The Kelly bag in semi-transparent organdi cotton could stop pedestrian traffic. What would you dare carry inside an opaque Hermes bag? Not 20 Nurofen and a Twix that's for sure.
Horses for courses. Menchari was an artist who worked with artists. Her windows often employed sculptors of twisted metal and few came more twisted than Cesar and his compression de cors de chasse. Luxury scrap metal or a totem for hunt saboteurs: apply your own meaning.