Hermès Lignes Sensibles collection is a dialogue between jewellery and human body
Through the Lignes Sensibles collection, Hermès explores the idea of jewellery that not only embellishes the body but gives it a language, accompanies its movements and expresses freedom.
If the contemptuous “talk to the hand” were to be stripped of its crass overtones and instead suffused with a careful caress, it would most likely translate into the Hermès Lignes Sensibles high jewellery line.
Hermès’ Creative Director of Jewellery Pierre Hardy, initiating a dialogue between jewellery and the human body, has crafted a slew of inspiring and thought-provoking wearable art pieces that are driven by patterns inspired by circuits, grids and lines.
“I was inspired by objects that are used to listen to the body, such as the stethoscope, which allows you to hear sounds and vibrations that are otherwise imperceptible to the ear. I wanted to transcribe these interior areas, to sketch their design on the skin. I see these lines as radiating out from them. I like the idea that you can choose a different anatomy, reinvent an intimate sensory system, like a wave that is made visible and given form by jewellery,” says Hardy.
With that in mind, the designer deconstructs the said objects and turns in new entities that revel in the elusive warmth of intimacy. That softness that characterises Lignes Sensibles can be found in the strikingly inward designs, pure materials and the restful hues.
Gemstones in colours close to the complexion, the lips or the iris further encourage the pieces to fit soundly around the finger, the neck and the wrist, to be at one with the skin.
Just have a look at the elaborate Contre La Peau necklace. Featuring a delicate rose gold lattice that sparkles with 867 brilliant-cut diamonds, this tour de force of a jewel is a testament to the supreme workmanship that Hermès is venerated for.
The weaving of the necklace alone is worthy of a mention as the artisans have painstakingly interlocked the minuscule triangles of gold with chatons in which the diamonds are set.
It’s a fleshed-out masterpiece that sees Hardy at his most intuitive as he forgoes the sketching part of the process. Imagining a fluid and flexible texture that would envelop the neck like an affectionate embrace, he creates a fabric out of metal and eventually a microscopic structure of the skin with the triangular micro-wrinkles.
It is an ingenious creation that demonstrates both Hardy and Hermès’ know-how in the field of meshing and the art of subtlety.
Visit hermes.com to find out more.
