Hermès’ Carré Club Arrives In Dubai

The French luxury fashion house’s famed carrés are getting a club of their very own, and we’re all invited

What makes an icon? A memorable design? A rich history? An A-list following? As icons go, Hermès has more than its fair share, but perhaps the most far-reaching is its famous silk square, the carré.

First introduced in 1937, it gets a major spotlight this month at an exclusive Carré Club event at Concrete in Dubai. The latest leg of a world tour that has so far included New York, Paris, Milan and Singapore, the by-appointment interactive event will celebrate the art and legacy of the scarf, with installations, artist stories and close-ups of the savoir-faire in action. It’s particularly timely, as the world takes an anti-fast consumerism stance, appreciating the importance of quality and artisanship rather than just a designer logo. As an entry point to the Hermès universe, the silk carré is more than an accessory. With its incredible vault of designs, mind-boggling printing process (of which more to come) and faultless finishing, it’s a unique marriage of art, craft and culture.

Circuit 24 Faubourg carré

Ultimately though, it’s the human touch that gives it life, both that of the artisans who make it and the woman – or man – who wears it. Culturally, the 90cm carré has retained its relevance throughout the decades. Its universal appeal has attracted everyone from Hollywood royalty (Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly were fans) to Queen Elizabeth, via avant-garde designers such as Comme des Garçons. In 2020 it became the accidental pandemic accessory for young luxury influencers and spawned a viral TikTok trend for a new wave of Gen-Z aficionados. That’s what makes an icon.

Homage To The Square

With its four borders representing the blank canvas of a painting, the carré serves as a space of fantasy and experimentation. Not surprising, then, that many of these silk renderings end up in an actual frame on a wall. Hermès commissions artists, illustrators, graphic designers and craftsmen from all walks of life to create designs that communicate whimsical stories, abstract ideas or playful graphics. The only stipulation is that unlike a painting, the piece has to work when worn on the body.

Among its most memorable designs are feats of imagination that transform well-known masterpieces into wearable art. In a stroke of genius, its Hermès Editeurs project took celebrated graphic artworks including Hiroshi Sugimoto’s gradient Polaroids and Julio Le Parc’s musical squiggles and turned them into instantly collectible carrés. Josef Albers’ square-within-a-square series, ‘Homage to the Square’ was so perfect it could almost have been conceived as a carré from the outset. (In typically witty style, Hermès renamed it ‘Hommage au carré’.)

The beauty of the Hermès carré is that despite its supposed limitations, it’s surprisingly versatile. With a little imagination, an Hermès carré can be a scarf (worn in myriad ways as demonstrated by its popular styling cards), a top, a bag, a belt or a necklace. It can be folded on the diagonal into a tube, looped through a clutch bag, then knotted to use as a strap. Or even fashioned into a makeshift – but uber-chic – sling, as famously demonstrated by Grace Kelly. It’s all part of the creative expression that each individual brings to the party.

The Silk Route

Hermès silk is not your average silk. It has its own strength and stability, coming from a Brazilian facility, which has been weaving silk for the brand for half a century. It takes up colour beautifully, its sheen giving it an incredible luminosity and intensity. And obviously, its fluidity is key, allowing for the limitless ways to drape and fold the fabric according to the wearer’s whims. Above all that, it’s inherently practical; it retains warmth in winter while keeping skin cool in summer.

Art And Craft

“It takes two years to make and two minutes to buy!” I was once told, and this indeed sums up the inherent value woven into each scarf. The first design was created by Robert Dumas, the son-in- law of Émile Hermès, who was the grandson of founder Thierry Hermès. Called ‘Jeu des Omnibus et Dames Blanches,’ it was a reproduction of a watercolour hanging in Émile Hermès’ office. These days, a scarf design is planned two years in advance, with the illustration, engraving and screen-printing process a lengthy undertaking involving many pairs of dedicated eyes and hands. Every year, over 50 designs are created. Each one begins as a paper design arriving at Hermès’ Lyon workshops, where engravers reproduce the work with Indian ink, gouaches, brushes and even electric pens for the finer details. A scarf with 47 colours? That will require 47 separate engravings. Flatbed silk screens are then used to print the finished pieces on gigantic 150 metre-long tables, with eagle-eyed expert checkers trained to spot the slightest imperfection. After fixing, washing, drying and cutting, the edge of each carré is hand-rolled and stitched to create the signature roulotté hem.

Cooking With Color

Here’s something you may not know about Hermès. It has its own colour committee, who agree two years in advance on the colour palette used for each collection across the entire product output. As a global brand, diversity is an important consideration; the colour palette has to suit all complexions. That said, there are no bad colours, only bad combinations. For carrés, each colour has its own precise recipe of pigments cooked up in a lab called the ‘colour kitchen’ at the printing workshops. In the lab, a ‘recipe book’ contains the dye formulas for each shade, again masterfully mixed by artisans to ensure consistency and quality. Considering the average design has around 30 colours, that’s a lot of artistic alchemy.

Space Derby carré from SS21

Immersive Discovery

Perhaps the best thing about the Hermès carré is the sheer variety of creativity on offer. At the Carré Club Dubai event, you can witness all this first-hand, while learning, playing and discovering the remarkable métier. Be there, or be square.


The Hermes Carré Club at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, is free of charge and open to the public between January 15-20. Book your time slot on the registration portal in advance from today.

Images courtesy of Hermès

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s January 2021 issue