The art of astonishment

Hermès’s artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas speaks to DIVYA BALA on his love for India and the importance of inventiveness

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Establishing an audience with Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the artistic director of Hermès, is almost as elusive as tracking down a Himalaya Birkin. As a scion and member of the founding family that has run the storied house for six generations (he is the great-great-great-grandson of Thierry Hermès) Pierre-Alexis captains the creative vision for the 20,000-strong company and his is a schedule that is in high demand. To wit, our interview at his office at Hermès's Paris headquarters is over half a year in the making.

This, it should be said, is entirely understandable. Pierre-Alexis signs off on every Hermès product. He oversees creative innovation and collaboration (for example, creating special-edition watch products and straps for Apple) he founded Fondation d'Entreprise Hermès, an initiative that supports art entrepreneurs around the world, and he is responsible for determining the annual theme that guides each of the house's creative collections since 2006. It was a tradition first innovated by his father Jean-Louis Dumas in 1987 as a means of illuminating a new facet of the world of Hermès. Pierre-Alexis took over once his father stepped down in 2005.