Hermès’ New Bond Street Maison Is London’s Latest Fashion Sanctuary
How a reckless weekend gamble and a “snail’s pace” philosophy created Hermes’ massive new Maison.
By Kenneth Goh - published
Everyone else in fashion is frantically sprinting, but Hermès moves with this slow, almost stubborn patience. Axel Dumas, the CEO, puts it best: “Horses are [our] main companion, but snail, I could sometimes characterise our speed... everybody now is investing in Formula One, and I’m a snail.”
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That’s exactly what hits you about the brand’s massive new Maison at 166 New Bond Street. This place wasn’t born out of some global corporate strategy meeting. They bought the building over a single weekend on pure intuition and desire, mostly because they wanted a legacy to hand down to the seventh generation.
“We feel at home here, and we want to build a home here,” Dumas said, standing at the foot of the grand Norman Foster staircase at the centre of 166 that spirals all the way up the building. You can actually feel that intent.
They took six historic buildings and opened them up into 55 rooms, spanning nearly 2,000 square metres.
It doesn’t feel like a boutique at all; it’s an ultra-chic house where eras blend into each other—you have tiny Victorian openings sitting right next to massive Georgian windows.
RDAI and Foster + Partners handled the design, but instead of gutting the place, they leaned into the history. When they found old 19th-century mosaics hidden under the floorboards during construction, they stopped and painstakingly restored them.
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They took dark, forgotten corners and made them incredibly airy. Down in the jewellery area, the walls shift tones to mimic the sky from sunrise to sunset.
The details are exquisite. A restored Victorian lift. A staircase wrapped in calfskin under a lifted glass ceiling. A massive wall built from 10,837 Murano glass bricks. The whole place is basically a living museum packed with over 550 artworks.
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As Artistic Director Pierre-Alexis Dumas notes, “My grandfather used to say Hermès is the most British of French brands.” Everything is there for a reason, from a Jessica Wetherly horse sculpture to an 18th-century bicycle shop sign in the courtyard.
You even feel the ghost of old Mayfair here. There are nods to Thomas Bond, the man who started the area, and they turned Sir Henry Irving’s old bedroom into a period lounge with a modern edge.
You can grab tea in a local-style red tea room or look at the windows by Kate Jenkins—a brilliant, crocheted grooming parlour that nods to Rocabar, which was just a French mispronunciation of traditional British horse blankets.
But the real heart of the place is all the way at the top. Pierre-Alexis mused, “I like the idea that he passed away in 1951, but that he still has an office here.”
“He” refers to Émile Hermès, Pierre-Alexis’ great-grandfather. They rebuilt his private office up there, and it opens right out onto a rooftop garden packed with 200 species of wild English flowers. Guarded by The Artificier horseman sculpture, it connects London directly back to Paris.
If you get a chance, see it for yourself at the roof garden. Peeping through wildflowers, it’s a magical view of London’s skyline, perfected by the hands of a French Maison.