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An unfortunate byproduct of the stealth wealth phenomenon, which has gripped the luxury industry for the past couple of years, is the beigeification of physical retail. Walk into the high-end showrooms in any luxury shopping plaza, and you’ll find yourself enveloped in an almost monastic simplicity. There’s a pervasive sameness—palette upon palette of neutral tones where grey, beige, and ecru reign supreme, and minimalist sensibilities dictate every line and angle. Hermès, however, bucks this trend at its new showroom in Mumbai. Here, colour is not only celebrated but contextualised. The façade is cloaked in dynamic hues of sun-drenched orange and deep shades of blue, echoing clouds of pigment tossed through the air during Holi. A striking window display—a Hermès trademark—draws inspiration from Gond art from the province of Madhya Pradesh. The essence of India is palpable, yet the ethos remains distinctly and quintessentially Hermès.
Since 2011, Hermès in Mumbai has been inextricably linked to its historic location at Horniman Circle in the city’s heritage precinct of Fort. The new store, which spans close to 5,000 square feet, is situated within the glittering Jio World Plaza in BKC—Mumbai’s glass-towered business hub—and is reframing this narrative.
A 50-Year Partnership
French architecture studio RDAI has been designing Hermès’ stores worldwide for an astounding 50 years now. Managing Director Denis Montel, at the helm of this long-standing partnership for the past 25 years, shares, “Working as an architect for Hermès, every day is a new story,” he tells AD. “So even 25 years later, it’s really nice to feel like you have to reinvent yourself. How to write another story every day that belongs to the big one? And it is our challenge every day, to feel the Hermès spirit.”
Montel is refreshingly candid about the design process and the level of Indian influence in his designs for the store. He says, “We are trying to design within the context; we are not Japanese in Japan, we are not Indian in India. We are French designers. But we are trying to be inspired by the locality and the context, and to catch different elements and play with them. We spend a lot of time selecting pictures, reading texts, trying to understand the weather, how people are dressed… All that we need in order to feel a bit like—what’s that city?”
Holi At Hermès
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