Design's Dream Lab

Hermès’s special-orders division brings innovation to the world of one-offs, be they cars, yachts, furnishings or pool tables.

- Janice O'leary

Good taste, however it’s discovered, can become an addiction. When one client first approached Axel de Beaufort, design and engineering director of Hermès’s special-orders division, Hermès Sur-Mesure, with a car proposal, he wanted it to “shout out loud with Hermès”, recalls Beaufort. “I told him he came to us for the wrong reason, then.” Hermès, in its exquisitely Parisian way, does not shout. One hundred and eightyfour years of heritage does not allow it. “Go discreet but strong,” Beaufort counselled. “Don’t overdo it.” The customer listened. An American automotive collector, he has since been entirely won over to the Hermès way of doing things and has returned with other cars, the most recent being a McLaren Speedtail that Beaufort and his team finished this past winter.

By “shout out loud”, what the client initially desired was to cover the vehicle in the brand’s signature orange. The car wasn’t yet ready from the manufacture in England, so Beaufort travelled to the factory to see it in person. “It’s a monster,” he says with a touch of glee. But orange for a McLaren didn’t feel right. Beaufort knew the client was searching for something unique and seeing the brand’s blue paint sparked an idea. “We have a blue leather we could play with that could inspire a new shade for the car,” he told him. The client was game. Months later, the perfect shade was achieved. Beaufort also suggested a transformation of the cabin so it felt cosier, less mechanical. He cut back on stitching on the creamy leather, leaving it supple and smooth and adding white canvas touches where it made sense. Now the car, already a collector’s fantasy, is a rare object: one of one.