Hermès Ventures Onto India’s Streets
Luxury brand Hermès grabbed the spotlight this week in India thanks to Pakistan’s visiting foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, whose stylish outfits, including her Hermès Birkin bag, threatened to grab even more attention than the first-time talks she held with her Indian counterparts.
Columnist Seema Goswami gushed on Twitter: “One positive spin-off of the Hina Rabbani Khar visit: everyone knows what a Birkin is. Well done, Hermès. Perfect product placement!.”
The 34-year-old foreign minister’s visit couldn’t have come at a better time for Hermès, given that it has just opened its third store in India. The French company’s new store in Mumbai’s Horniman Circle area follows its others in Pune and Delhi, but the Mumbai outlet is the first to be opened directly on Indian streets. The Pune and Delhi stores are tucked away in luxury hotels Ista and The Oberoi, respectively.
Hermès has taken up residence in Mumbai in a grand two-storey building. The store has been designed by Parisian architecture agency Rena Dumas Architecture Interieure (RDAI). One side overlooks the Asiatic Society Library, whose origins date back to around 1804, while Horniman Circle Gardens sit on the other.
Horniman Circle may not match New York’s Fifth Avenue or London’s Bond Street, but it is prime Mumbai real estate, nestled in the Fort area at the historic heart of this enormous, heaving city.
Spread over two floors and featuring a series of large connecting rooms, the Hermès store houses a collection of scarves, jackets, jewelry and of course, the brand’s enviable bags. The imposing stone staircase on the ground floor, which coils around a transparent glass elevator, links the two levels and is done up with steel railings and glass balustrades.
The first room upon entering the store is devoted to silk, perfumes, jewelry and watches. Passageways from this white-walled room lend views of the ties and leather bags in adjoining rooms. Another smaller section at the back of the ground floor has ready-to-wear for men and women.
The staircase leading to the second floor reminds you there are more luxurious indulgences to come, but sadly there’s still no sign of that genie who will offer to get you at least one of those Hermès bags.
Upstairs, clear parquet floors and tall ceilings house Hermès’ Pippa furniture range, home décor pieces and its baby collection.
It’s a grand store that outshines the nearby office complexes and banks.
Speaking about the Mumbai store’s design, RDAI’s artistic and managing director Denis Montel said: “The choice of the location, the architectural quality of the environment is an essential vector to give to an Hermès shop is own distinctive quality.”
“We work, as often as possible, to valorise the existing site on which we build. We try to understand the context, to analyse and look at how we can integrate within this context,” Mr. Montel said in an email.
He added that in designing the store, regular contact with the local historic building authorities was required. He said his team had to ensure that the façade was free of air-conditioning units and other modern-day eyesores.
A statement by Hermès India also announced that the company plans to support the Asiatic Society of Mumbai by donating some of the proceeds of the sales of an exclusive edition of the silk scarf “La Danse du Cheval Marwari” (Marwari horse dance).
“The opening of the flagship store in Mumbai is the expression of Hermès ambition to take part in the pulsating and cosmopolitan life of a city, in which the past, present and future coexist in harmony,” Hermès India President Bertrand Michaud added in the statement.
