The Enchaînements libres collection lies at the heart of Hermès’ vision of fine jewellery, une joaillerie de la forme, in which design is at the centre of the stylistic message, and materials are crafted to showcase the splendour of the precious stone and the virtuosity of the stone-setter’s hand.
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The chain is at the core of the Hermès story. It tells a tale of boldness and innovation of form. A tale that draws on the house’s origins as a harness-maker and saddler and on the nautical world, with the anchor chain as a leitmotif. A tribute to the transformation of metal into jewellery, of raw material into sensual adornment, the Enchaînements libres collection explores freedom in chains, playing with boundaries: it is a study of form and excellence in fine jewellery.
Pierre Hardy, creative director of Hermès jewellery, explores and disrupts this story. “To build the collection, I started by reflecting on links, their sequence, what connects micro to mega, the very human to the very abstract. The chain is what links scales and categories; it is a mathematical figure, like the torus and the Möbius strip. It connects and interconnects opposites, it attaches and liberates; it evokes strength, but also fluidity and softness,” says Pierre Hardy.
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Body, action, movement. Seizing movement, suspending it. This is the art of the sculptor and the dancer. It is also the art of the fine jeweller. The collection is an ode to the body in motion. Chains to celebrate the freedom of bodies? The paradox is embraced. It provides its momentum.
Powerful and precious, the chain becomes an emblem for women: free, independent and bold. These forms are a reminder that to wear Jewellery is to don a noble material in a close union that reveals a posture, a bearing of the head, that magnifies every gesture, emphasises the delicacy of a clasp. It is the ritual of adornment taken to its highest level of refinement.