Okay, Hermès. You got me. What IS it?

Once, briefly, I had a Hermès scarf in my possession.

Now, I'm a scarf person, and I have a ton of them. From dime store bandanas to Liberty of London shawls, from light summer scarves to heavy winter woolens, I love wearing scarves. While Dr. Deborah Birx of covid fame (infamy?) tried her darnedest to give scarves a bad name, I chose to ignore that bad name. Scarves 'r' us. Or me, at any rate.

Hermès scarves have not been part of my scarf repertoire, however. All those stirrup designs. Too horsy. 

And then a Hermès scarf fell into my hands.

A colleague returned from a business trip with a Hermès scarf that he'd found in his hotel room. 

Why in god's name he didn't just leave it there, or drop it off at the front desk, I'll never know. But he brought it home, and after his wife rejected it, he  - knowing that I wore scarves all the time - offered it to me. It was both hideous - blue, yellow, and brown stirrups (or something - it's been a good 25 years) - and gorgeous (the weight and quality of the silk). 

I took it home, but it just was so not me...(It didn't help that whoever the owner was wore a ton of very heavy parfum. Completely noxious.) So "my" Hermès scarf ended up in the Goodwill box.

Hermès isn't all horse-related. Some of their wares are actually quite beautiful. But so far out of the realm of purchase possibility. To put it mildly. 

You don't have to have your eye on the $525K crocodile Birkin bag to get priced out of the market. 

They sell a sofa for $123.5K. (Yes, you read that correctly. Ikea's founder is rolling over in his grave.) A very pretty folding screen for $40.1K. (Another roll.) A very pretty floral platter for $2,090.  For that price, you have gotten a Birkin bag charm. Or a beach towel and a couple of silk scarves. 

What got me thinking about Hermès - something I'm seldom getting to thinking about - was the ad I saw in a recent New Yorker touting the company's Objects for Interior Life. 

I'm old school enough to remember when having an interior life had less to do with objects than it did with heart, mind, and soul. Then again, I'm not the Hermès target consumer.

I get that the object for interior life to the left is a bowl. (Hey, I have wooden bowls.)

But what is the woman holding over her face?

I looked over on the Hermès interior life page, and it is pictured in their video. But I still can't tell what it is. It didn't help that the narration is en français.

The info provided doesn't offer much insight. I did learn that "designed with its use in mind, each object becomes part of everyday life."

So, what's the use that they had in mind? Fan? Shade? Leather ashtray?

I also learned that "it takes its place within the space and demarcates volumes."

I have no idee what that means. Perhaps it was lost in translation. 

The mind and the hand transform the material through the artisan’s unique and innovative know-how. Functional and vital furniture and objects adorn interiors with neutral or bright tones, permeate and structure the space and forge a strong bond with our interiors.

Unique and innovative know-how created that unknown object for interior life the woman in the ad is holding - whatever it is - I'll grant you. But, not knowing what it is, it's hard for me to appreciate what's so functional and vital about this object, and how it's going to forge a bond with its interior. It sure doesn't help that the model fanning/shading herself with it seems to be doing so in the great outdoors, not on the inside.

So, Hermès. You got me. What IS it?