The Case of the Hermes Mountain Bike

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The Case of the Hermès Mountain Bike: Inside the secret world of bespoke Hermès, where just about anything can be made in the house’s legendary leathers. by Jason Sheeler. Photographs by François Coquerel

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AT 8 A . M . E AC H M O R N I N G shoppers begin lining up outside the Hermès store on Paris’s Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré for limited-edition Birkins, Kellys, and silk carrés. But about half an hour away, in the suburb of Pantin, is the really good stuff. There, inside an industrial warehouse, are one-of-akind boxing gloves, wallets, woven baskets, Foosball tables, motorcycles, hockey sticks, Aston Martins, powerboats—all reimagined and reconfigured in the house’s leathers, silks, and 19th-century traditions. Each one is born from the union of a customer’s mind and a craftsperson’s hands. The facility sits behind a door marked with an understated little leather sign reading hermès horizons. About 30 artisans work inside what Hermès Le Sur-Mesure calfskin boxing gloves, $44,100. Opposite: The interior of a 1935 Avions Voisin C28 Aérosport upholstered in Hermès leather.


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