Hermès made horse harnesses before it made a single handbag
For its first 85 years, Hermès served horses and riders. The Paris workshop opened in 1837 turning out harnesses and saddles, and handbags only arrived in 1922, after the owner's wife complained she could not find one she liked. Her husband designed the collection himself.
Thierry Hermès, born in Krefeld in 1801 to a French father and German mother, learned saddlery in Pont-Audemer, a Normandy town known for tanning. Returning to Paris as a master craftsman, he opened a workshop near La Madeleine in 1837. A first-class medal at the 1867 Exposition Universelle brought elite customers, among them the Russian imperial court. His son Charles-Émile moved the business to 24 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, still its headquarters.
The next generation, Émile-Maurice, saw where transport was heading. On a trip to the United States during the First World War he noticed the rise of the car and came home with the zip fastener, securing exclusive French rights to use it on leather goods and clothing. In 1918 he made a zipped leather golf jacket for Edward, Prince of Wales, and the French began calling the device the Hermès fastener. Saddle-stitching skills moved into luggage, and silk squares followed in 1937.
Shortages under German occupation during the Second World War forced the house to use orange packaging, and orange became its official colour. A small strap bag designed in the 1930s picked up a new name in the 1950s after Life magazine published a photograph of Grace Kelly, newly Princess of Monaco, carrying it. In 1984 Jean-Louis Dumas sat next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London, and their conversation about her woven basket led to the Birkin bag.
The founder's descendants, split into the Dumas, Guerrand and Puech branches, still control the company. When shares were floated in 1993 the offer was oversubscribed 34 times. By 2025 sales reached 16 billion euros, with around 26,500 staff.
Source: Hermès
