But for us, Maison Shanghai is the pinnacle."Īuspiciously, given the brand's humble beginnings 177 years ago as a maker of saddles and harnesses, the opening falls in the Chinese Year of the Horse.Ī Hermes fireworks-maker on horseback sits on the south side of the Maison's terracotta roof, and the brand's Chinese name, Ai Ma Shi, translates as "horse-loving gentleman". "We have a beautiful store in Hangzhou, for example.
"We decided in China that it is more important to have bigger stores where we can show the full range of our products. Hermes hires 200 craftsmen a year and it takes up to five years for each to reach peak productivity, which creates obvious production constraints, Dumas says. Hermes opened its first store in Beijing in 1997 and one in Shanghai in 2001, but some pundits have questioned whether the company, which refuses to ramp up production of its popular Kelly or Birkin bags, will maintain its exclusivity or change its business model to exploit such a vast market as China. The store was designed by Denis Montel of the French architectural agency RDAI, and includes a range of limited-edition products. "We hope it will also develop an environment of its own," added the former banker and sixth-generation scion of the family-owned French luxury group. "But as you can see, it's all a bit more complicated, from the staircase to everything else. "Usually a store is like a big box," he adds. We believe this historic building is one of a kind," says Axel Dumas, Hermes' CEO since June last year. "For us, it's very important that the Maison is an aesthetic statement. The building covers 1,174 square meters of sales and exhibition space. Inside, a dozen members of the Hermes family attended what they called the "christening". Six years after Hermes, Europe's third-largest luxury goods group, broke ground on its fifth global "Maison" by renovating a heritage building on Huaihai Road in Shanghai, the store opened on Sept 12, amid much pomp and pageantry.Ī phalanx of security guards and hostesses dressed in black welcomed VIPs from their limousines outside the four-story, H-shaped building. Provided to China DailyĪfter six years in the making, officials from the French luxury group hope to wow Huaihai Road The show window of Hermes' newly-opened store along Shanghai's historic Huahai Road.