Chain Gang: Hermès’ Enchaînements Libres

Ahead of its exhibition in Dubai this month, Bazaar’s Olivia Phillips speaks to the man behind the French luxury brand’s exceptional high-jewellery collection – the multitalented Pierre Hardy

I have found myself having a good-natured debate over Zoom with a wonderfully energetic, bespectacled Pierre Hardy, coming in loud and clear from Hermès’ much-mythologised HQ in Paris. A sartorial deliberation – however jovial – is something one feels they’ll never be fully armed for against the man behind some of the world’s most-iconic accessories.

After all, Hermès’ long-time creative director of footwear and jewellery is responsible for giving us such runaway hits as the Oran sandal, as well as the cube-perspective print found on totes and pouches from his eponymous brand, and in a different lifetime, the Lego heel that once stomped down the catwalk at Balenciaga.

Necklace Voltige in yellow gold with white diamonds, POA, Hermès

The topic we’re bouncing around is tribalism in fashion – instigated by a question I raised over his powerful high-jewellery collection, Enchaînements Libres, a line of dramatic, twisting, diamonddusted pieces that arrive on October 28 for an installation-exhibition at Hermès’ Dubai Mall store for 10 days.

“Tribal? You think so?” he asks, sipping tea from a pristine white cup. “I think it used to be. It’s tribal in a sense that some people are more ahead of it and some people are following it, but I think that nowadays, because of rapid-circulation on social media and globalisation, the tribes tend to be just one. Especially the youth, because they’re aware of everything that’s happening in the world. I think it tends to blur the differences and to make one unit-tribe, I would say.”

Bracelet Grand Jeté in rose gold with white diamonds, pink opal, black jade and yellow brown topaz, POA, Hermès

It’s a sentiment far more in keeping with the key motif the collection is built around; the chain. A symbol of connection at a time when humanity is thinking about it the most, as well as – of course – a central part of the maison’s history as a harness-maker and saddler.

The collection is both poetic objet d’art – as one would expect from a house so wedded to impeccable beauty – and a feat of craftsmanship, although the results are so fluid that he has made the endeavour appear almost effortless. A result, perhaps, of a designer who has two decades of creating jewellery with a wow factor under his belt.

Necklace Chaine d’Ancre Zoom in rose gold with white diamonds and rock crystal, POA, Hermès

Not that jewellery was always the goal. Born in Paris to an athleticsteacher father and ballet-instructor mother, Pierre began his career as a dancer – realised now, in part, in his pieces’ grace, movement and even the occasional name (one is called the Grand Jeté, a famous ballet term).  He laughs when I ask him if he still dances. 

“I’m too old!” (He’s not). “I really loved it,” he reminisces, eyes twinkling from behind his signature glasses, “I dedicated my entire youth to it. I had no free time basically; it was school and dance and painting and drawing. I was 22 the first time I went out to a discothèque – can you imagine?!” he shakes his head, chuckling at the memory. “But you know, when you do something to that level of almost-professional, when you decide to quit, in a way it’s everything or nothing. There’s no middle ground. It’s a very demanding art. Halfway doesn’t mean anything.”

Hit maker: creative director of footwear and jewellery at Hermès, Pierre Hardy

It’s this attitude that explains his success at Hermès; a maison whose philosophy could well be this. Create something with all your heart, or don’t create it at all. “I never dreamed of becoming a shoe designer,” he explains of where he started in fashion, 33 years ago. “It just happened – very happily, I must say. And I’m still enjoying it all these years later. I just wanted to draw, paint, design, create… it could have been houses, furniture, cars. I didn’t mind. It just happened that shoes came first.”

And while footwear aficionados the world over breathe a sigh of relief that that happy coincidence ever came to be, jewellery fans can, too. “Once again, when it came to jewellery, it was quite a surprise that [late Hermès chairman] Jean-Louis Dumas at the time asked me [to design Hermès’ jewellery]. I said, “If you think that I can do it, then I’ll do it with pleasure.”

Necklace Fushion in rose gold and satinfinished titanium with brown diamonds, POA, Hermès

Monsieur Dumas, ever the astute businessman, was of course spot-on in his thinking. Not least because, 19 years on, we have Enchaînements Libres to thank the pair of them for – the perfect combination of the house’s heritage codes and Pierre’s modern, dynamic take on what women want.

“When I started, the first thing Jean-Louis told me was, ‘Don’t ‘do’ Place Vendôme,” he explains of Dumas’ forward-thinking vision for the newly founded jewellery pillar at Hermès – by which to say, buck against tradition and the established structures of the jewellery world and create something utterly fresh. He worked to the brief.

Necklace Grand Jeté in rose gold with white diamonds, black jade, orange yellow sapphire and pink opal, POA, Hermès

“I thought it would be very complicated to create a full collection around one motif,” he details of his approach to Enchaînements Libres, “but the deeper I went inside the shape of the chain, inside the structure, I discovered there was a thousand things to consider. So for me, it was quite experimental.” And quite conceptual, I add. “Yes, but you can’t wear a concept around your neck,” he smiles. “You wear a beautiful piece of jewellery.”

He’s right again, of course. And I can’t help but agree.

Styling by Anna Castan 

Photography by Toufic Araman 

Floral Designer: Chloe Szukilojc.

Pierre’s Portrait: Alexis Armanet

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s October 2020 issue