The elusive creative director of Hermès’ Women’s Universe spoke to us about the Carré Club, and everything relating to the iconic silk square.

It was a cool and quiet Saturday in Paris for most &ndash; but a red-letter day for Bali Barret, Creative Director of <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/tags/hermes">Herm&egrave;s&rsquo;</a> Women&rsquo;s Universe. The Maison was due to show its Spring/Summer 2019 collection that evening. Exactly seven hours prior to the big moment, Barret was scheduled to sit down with us for an exclusive interview at Paris&rsquo; famed La Closerie des Lilas &ndash; a caf&eacute; and restaurant known for the literary greats that wrote and drank there &ndash; Ernest Hemingway included.

The topic of discussion: the house&rsquo;s biggest event of the year, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/hermes-carre-club-coming-to-singapore">Carr&eacute; Club</a>, which is dedicated wholly to its iconic square silks. Barret, who was previously Artistic Director of Feminine Silk, had just returned to Paris from New York, where the first in a series of Carr&eacute; Club events had already been held, prior to it hitting Singapore. Engaged in preparations for the Spring/Summer 2019 show together with Herm&egrave;s&rsquo; Artistic Director Nad&egrave;ge Vanhee-Cybulski, it was completely fathomable that Barret was slightly delayed for the interview. And when the designer arrived effusing about the Carr&eacute; and Club event, the little wait was well worth it.

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The New York experience she said, was &ldquo;great, beyond expectations&rdquo;. &ldquo;It was so interesting for people to know what&rsquo;s behind-the-scenes, to know how we work &ndash; the inspiration, drawing, transferring of print. We don&rsquo;t just print the drawings, so it&rsquo;s important for people to understand the silk scarf that belongs to the Herm&egrave;s world. The scarf represents fantasy. At Carr&eacute; Club, we combine aspects of fun, party and celebration. We unveil the artwork through amusement. Guests get to see the artists &ndash; they are entertaining and have a non-conservative spirit,&rdquo; she added.

The fun, party and celebration that is referred to come in the form of several playful concepts revolving around the silk square (&ldquo;and what&rsquo;s not so square&rdquo;, revealed Barret) &nbsp;&ndash;there is a Carr&eacute;-oke room, as well as Carr&eacute; cut, where one can get a blonde, square-shaped haircut with prints on it. A beauty salon provides square Carr&eacute; nail manicures, while the Carr&eacute; caf&eacute; is decorated with square tables. &nbsp;

The room that&rsquo;s closest to Barret&rsquo;s heart though is home to the true talent behind the silks &ndash; the artists. &ldquo;I really love the studio with the artists. They are special people and diverse characters. It was almost like having a full class at art school. Most of them are young. Some of them have tattoos. They are fun, and we have all sorts of people designing the Carr&eacute;. When people saw this, they were wowed. In a way, Carr&eacute; Club has updated the image of the scarf,&rdquo; she concludes.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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On a similarly serious note, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, a member of the founding family that has run the company for six generations, famously referred to the Carr&eacute; as &ldquo;an object&rdquo;, and not an accessory. But Barret has her own opinion on the matter: &ldquo;The Carr&eacute; has become a cult object, but in reality, it is an accessory. You could put it on the wall if you wanted to &ndash; because it is so beautiful, and people do that. But for me, it is something you need to wear. It&rsquo;s a nice combination &ndash; art and accessory. For me, you need to wear it, you need to wash it. It&rsquo;s not a sacred object,&rdquo; she explained.&nbsp;

THE ARTISTS ARE SPECIAL PEOPLE AND DIVERSE CHARACTERS. MOST OF THEM ARE YOUNG. SOME OF THEM HAVE TATTOOS. THEY ARE FUN. WHEN PEOPLE SAW THIS, THEY WERE WOWED. IN A WAY. THE CARRÉ CLUB HAS UPDATE THE IMAGE OF THE SCARF. 

Certainly, the square silk has gained a loyal following over the years &ndash; and Barret acknowledges that one reason why the Club was conceived was that the Maison wanted to gather its fans and collectors in one place, at first hand. &ldquo;Instead of them chatting about it on the web, we thought we should organise something to allow people to meet and talk about the Carr&eacute; in real life, enter the creation studio, and see the designers in action.&rdquo;

It&rsquo;s an open club too, according to Barret &ndash; one where anyone can be a member. &ldquo;For some, walking into a Herm&egrave;s store&rsquo;s scarf department can be intimidating. It can be a little scary, perhaps. In New York, a young generation came to experience Carr&eacute; Club. It&rsquo;s fun, it&rsquo;s exciting. Plus, the Carr&eacute; is one of our most affordable products,&rdquo; she chimed.

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One thing that the Club is not, is a pure Instagram opportunity. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think about this at all. We are not organising Carr&eacute; Club or creating the Carr&eacute; for that purpose. If we were, we wouldn&rsquo;t need to transport Carr&eacute; Club all around the world, physically. It&rsquo;s wonderful that our efforts are being amplified [on digital platforms], but that&rsquo;s not the core idea. We want people to really experience the moment, not just take pictures.&rdquo;

There&rsquo;s no way that the Creative Director would have reductive ideas about the Carr&eacute; &ndash; not with the astonishing amount of skill and precision that lies behind each design. Barret details that it takes an illustrator two months to a year to work on a design for a 90 by 90 cm scarf. Engraving, the next step, can then take six to nine months. Coloration, a step that Barret is directly involved in, requires eight to twelve colours, and for her team to meet once a week for up to seven months per collection. All in all, the entire process for a collection takes about two and a half years. &ldquo;Right now, we&rsquo;re selecting designs for spring 2020, so we work very much in advance. It&rsquo;s such a long process, that you&rsquo;re guaranteed your scarf will last a very long time,&rdquo; says Barret.&nbsp;

When asked for her Fall/Winter 2018 highlights, she asks for a moment to recollect before she continues: &ldquo;There is a new Polish designer called Jan Bajtlik we are working with. He created an Animapolis &ndash; a science fiction city that belongs to animals. It&rsquo;s full of colours and you can spend hours watching it. It&rsquo;s very contemporary. I really loved the designs. It shows we&rsquo;re not just about carriages and harnesses &ndash; I like the mix of young hands and designers, re-editing, and contemporary creations. We&rsquo;re not a traditional, classic profile, but always tapping into young and unexpected talent. It&rsquo;s never about redoing what&rsquo;s been done before.&rdquo;

And with that, Barret was off again &ndash; whizzed back to perfecting that Spring/Summer 2019 show.

ALWAYS TAPPING INTO YOUNG AND UNEXPECTED TALENT, IT’S NEVER ABOUT REDOING SOMETHING WHAT’S BEEN DONE BEFORE.

2.jpg

Out of Square

Much like the Maison she designs for, Bali Barret shows off her fun side

On her first Carr&eacute;

When I was a kid, my mother had carr&eacute;s, but didn&rsquo;t wear them. She considered scarves too conservative. As every girl would, I watched my mother and what I could borrow or take from her. When I was 12, I took one called Les Cl&eacute;s and I painted the trunk in my room like it &ndash; with key motifs in white, black and gold. I basically drew the scarf onto the trunk.

On her personal collection

It is vast. The one thing I can say is that I&rsquo;m losing scarves a lot. It&rsquo;s a good idea to follow me. Once I was crossing the street, and my scarf flew away. By the time I realised, it was too late.

On what she loves most about working at Herm&egrave;s 

The freedom of creation. I&rsquo;m not saying there is no freedom at other companies, but I don&rsquo;t know if one can experience it so much. We have the mentality that, if the creation is strong, everything will turn out fine. It&rsquo;s always about what we want to do, how we see things, and what we want to create &ndash; and those are the basics of creation. I believe that to be the secret of our success. Creatives can be scary for executives, but we are able to feel and imagine, so we are very lucky. When you are creative, and are asked &ldquo;why?&rdquo;, the answer is just &ldquo;because&rdquo;. You can&rsquo;t really justify creativity. It is the opposite of rationality.

Exclusive: Bali Barret Takes Us Inside the World of Hermès Scarves

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