Hermès is celebrating 70 years of selling silk scarves by hosting a two-week exhibition in Hong Kong , at the city’s Pacific Place mall on 29 June. The exhibition, called “Once Upon a Silk”, gives an overview of the French fashion house’s use of silk throughout the decades. The company commissioned US artist Hilton McConnico who designed a show that uses a Chinese legend about the origins of the Silk Route to best showcase the Hermès silk archives. According to the tale, a bird with wings of silk sets of on a journey to discover the meaning of life and shed its feathers along the way. These created the Silk Route. Using this storyline, McConnico illustrates the evolvement of and themes used in Hermès’ silk scarves.
The first silk scarf the company made was in 1937 and was called “Jeu des Omnibus et des Dames Blanches”. The scarf is included in the exhibit. Since then, Hermès has introduced about 1,500 scarf designs. The exhibition moves to the Shanghai Art Museum on 8 September and will also feature designs by Chinese artists, which were commissioned by McConnico.