How Hermès Built a Booming Luxury Business From a Humble Harness

UNBRIDLED Riding paraphernalia from Hermès history. Photo: Getty Images By Rory Satran March 29, 2019 10:20 a.m. ET BEING ON HOLD with someone at the Hermès office is a bit like trying to reach Mister Ed. Instead of canned corporate music, one hears the clip-clop of horses’ hoofs and the occasional neigh.

Well, horses and their well-heeled owners. At first solely focused on harnesses, Hermès branched into saddles in the later 1800s, and still painstakingly crafts them by hand at its headquarters at 24, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. According to Ms. Larochette, it sells between 400 and 450 saddles a year, to clients like royals, presidential types and one doting, spendthrift father who commissioned a heart-shaped custom saddle for his teenage daughter.

Clockwise from top left: Vivace jumping saddle, $8,500, hermes.com; the stirrup-shaped Galop d’Hermès perfume, from $215, hermes.com; an Hermès saddler in 1965; a 2004 look; a page from a 1912 catalog; riding boot, $1,300, Hermès, 212-751-3181; bit-link bracelets from 1935 The functionality and aesthetic of a handsome harness has always informed the brand’s designs, Ms.

“For me the equestrian department of Hermès is a bit like the haute couture department at Chanel,” said Dana Thomas, author of “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster.” “It’s what they were originally about, and there is still a small clientele that pays money for it…I think they believe that the day that they give that up, they’ll lose sight of who they are, what their mission is.

Equestrian Lucy Deslauriers, an Hermès Partner Rider, unsurprisingly uses the brand’s gear on her steeds Hester, Hamlet and Kaspara. “From what they’ve told me, they love it,” the 19-year-old said. “They look great in it, and everything seems to be fitting well.” The brand’s original client, the horse, is still catered to 182 years on.

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