Introduction

For nearly two centuries, Hermès has represented the highest echelon of craftsmanship and quiet luxury. Founded in 1837 as a harness workshop in Paris, the house began by crafting elegant bridles and saddles for European nobility. From that niche grew an empire of refinement — leather goods, silk scarves, homeware, watches, and ready-to-wear — each designed with obsessive attention to detail.
But even for a brand so firmly rooted in heritage, evolution is essential. Hermès’ magic lies in how it adapts without losing its essence. The orange box, the saddle stitch, the smell of calf leather — these are sacred. Yet Hermès also knows that freshness fuels desire.
The secret weapon? Collaborations.
While other luxury houses use collaborations as loud marketing stunts, Hermès treats them as thoughtful dialogues. Every partnership — whether with Apple, MycoWorks, artists, or automakers — invites new perspectives while respecting the brand’s DNA. The result is a model of how a historic house can remain modern without chasing trends.

Why collaborations matter for Hermès

Reinforcing heritage while sparking novelty

For Hermès, collaborations aren’t about chasing relevance; they’re about exploring new expressions of craftsmanship. The house doesn’t “borrow cool” from partners — it builds something mutually elevating. As brand strategist Martin Roll notes, Hermès’ collaborations “raise the visibility of its products while strengthening exclusivity.”
In other words, Hermès partners not to dilute its identity but to reaffirm what makes it special — artisanship, creativity, and lasting value. A partnership with an artist or brand isn’t about marketing metrics; it’s about shared ideals: precision, beauty, and the human touch.
Take the Apple × Hermès collaboration. It could have been a flashy logo mash-up, yet it wasn’t. Instead, it became a marriage of form and function — where Hermès’ handcrafted leather met Apple’s sleek innovation. Every watch band feels like an object of art, not tech. This is Hermès’ philosophy in motion: innovation anchored in heritage.

Opening new arenas and audiences

Hermès’ collaborations act as bridges — connecting the maison’s loyal patrons with emerging audiences who engage with luxury in new ways.
With Apple, Hermès entered the digital sphere without compromising authenticity. The Apple Watch Hermès introduced Hermès to millions who may never step into a boutique but instantly recognized the brand’s touch of sophistication. Each strap is crafted in the same workshops as Birkin handles and saddle leathers — a subtle reminder that even in a smartwatch, Hermès remains Hermès.
These collaborations expand relevance without sacrificing exclusivity. They show that craftsmanship can coexist with technology and that heritage can thrive in the digital era.

Maintaining scarcity and prestige

In a world flooded with “collabs,” Hermès does something rare — it collaborates sparingly. The scarcity itself becomes part of the luxury. Hermès doesn’t sign multi-year fashion tie-ins or drop sneakers every quarter. It waits for the right partners — those whose ethos aligns with its own.
This selectivity preserves the brand’s aura of rarity. Collaborations like Apple × Hermès or MycoWorks × Hermès become events — not just products. Each carries the aura of a limited, carefully considered experiment rather than a commercial campaign.

Categories of Hermès collaborations

1. Technology Meets Heritage: Apple × Hermès

When Apple and Hermès first announced their partnership in 2015, it was met with intrigue. How could a century-old saddle maker and a Silicon Valley tech giant possibly align? The answer came in the details: Apple’s precision engineering found its complement in Hermès’ meticulous leather craft.
The Apple Watch Hermès features handmade straps from Barenia, Swift, and Epsom calf leathers — materials used in Hermès’ classic handbags. The watch faces, exclusive to the collaboration, mirror the typography of Hermès timepieces, blending analog warmth with digital clarity.
In 2024, the partnership reached a new level with the Apple Watch Series 10 Hermès, featuring straps made from woven nylon and rubber mixed with leather — modern, lightweight, and sporty while keeping the aesthetic codes of the maison.

Why this partnership stands out:

• It reflects balance — tradition meets innovation.
• It gives Hermès access to a younger, tech-forward clientele.
• It shows how digital objects can become emotional possessions when imbued with artisanal care.

The collaboration also demonstrates how Hermès can step into future-facing industries while preserving the tactile values that define luxury.

2. Materials & Sustainability Innovation: MycoWorks × Hermès

If Apple brought Hermès into the digital age, MycoWorks helped usher it into a sustainable one.
In 2021, Hermès announced it was developing a new material called Sylvania — created from “fine mycelium,” the root structure of mushrooms. The biotech firm MycoWorks had pioneered this bio-fabric, capable of mimicking the feel and durability of traditional leather.
The first product to use it was a reinterpretation of the Hermès Victoria travel bag. To the untrained eye, it looked like any other Hermès piece: supple, luminous, beautifully stitched. But its core was something entirely new — grown, not tanned.
This collaboration marked a quiet revolution. Rather than abandoning its legacy materials, Hermès showed that even the most traditional luxury house can participate in the future of responsible design.

Key insights from the MycoWorks partnership:

• Sustainability can align with ultra-luxury values.
• Innovation doesn’t have to mean compromise.
• New materials can carry emotional weight when crafted with care.

Sylvania is not yet mainstream, but it represents Hermès’ willingness to experiment privately, not perform publicly — a subtle yet powerful form of innovation.

3. Artistic & Cultural Collaborations: Hermès Éditeur

Hermès has always viewed fashion as an art form. Since 1937, its silk scarves have been miniature canvases for illustrators and painters, each design signed like a painting.
The Hermès Éditeur project formalized this connection. Each edition invites a contemporary artist to reinterpret the carré (silk square) as a limited-run artwork.

• In 2010, Argentine artist Julio Le Parc transformed scarves into kinetic abstractions of color and light, echoing his Op Art paintings.
• Josef Albers’ geometric studies inspired another series — an homage to color theory and visual rhythm.
• In 2015, Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto contributed scarves inspired by his blurred seascape photography.

Every collaboration adds a new vocabulary to Hermès’ visual identity. The scarves become wearable art — framed by collectors, passed down as heirlooms.

If you want to know more about Hermès, visit our Hermès blog.

Why it works:

These partnerships reaffirm Hermès as a patron of culture rather than a mere brand. Art becomes not a marketing hook but a dialogue — between artist and artisan, color and craft.

4. Automotive Collaborations: Bugatti and Rolls-Royce

When Hermès touches cars, it doesn’t design engines — it designs experiences.
In 2008, Hermès collaborated with Bugatti to create the Veyron Fbg par Hermès, named after the brand’s Parisian flagship on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Every inch of the vehicle’s interior, from the dashboard to the door handles, was covered in natural leather stitched by Hermès artisans.

Later, in 2021, Rolls-Royce × Hermès unveiled the Phantom Oribe, a custom model for Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa. The car’s interior featured Enea Green leather, crafted in Hermès’ ateliers, and hand-painted designs inspired by 1950s Hermès porcelain.

These collaborations show how Hermès expands its definition of “objects of desire.” Whether a bag or a Bugatti, the principles remain: meticulous craftsmanship, sensory pleasure, timeless design.

5. Lifestyle & Home Collaborations

Beyond leather and cars, Hermès extends its artistry into homeware and dining. Collaborations with designers like Virginie Jamin, who created the Cheval d’Orient tableware collection, reinterpret Hermès’ equestrian heritage in porcelain and enamel.

The brand’s Petit h initiative also invites artists and craftsmen to reimagine leftover materials into whimsical new creations — lamps, toys, keychains, and sculptures. These one-of-a-kind pieces turn sustainability into creativity, proving that even remnants from Hermès workshops can find second life through collaboration.

What these collaborations reveal about Hermès’ design philosophy

1. Craftsmanship is sacred

Every Hermès collaboration begins and ends with the artisan. Whether it’s a smartwatch strap or a car interior, the materials are treated with the same reverence as a Birkin. Each stitch, each edge-finish, each clasp is completed by hand.
This consistency is why collaborations don’t feel foreign — they feel like extensions of a single narrative. The partner provides context; Hermès provides soul.

2. Authenticity over trend

In contrast to other brands that chase hype through limited “drops,” Hermès avoids sensationalism. Its collaborations don’t scream for attention — they whisper excellence.
Each partnership emerges from mutual respect, not opportunism. That restraint is rare in a market obsessed with speed. By collaborating quietly, Hermès ensures that every project feels natural — the opposite of forced virality.

3. Innovation through tradition

Innovation doesn’t mean abandoning the past. For Hermès, the future always loops back to its roots — leather, handwork, precision, restraint. Whether it’s mushroom leather or a digital watch, each experiment passes through the same lens of craft.
This fusion of old and new defines the modern Hermès identity: a brand that evolves slowly, intentionally, beautifully.

4. Expanding without diluting

Hermès’ collaborations are not designed to make the brand more accessible but more intellectually expansive. The partnerships open new worlds — technology, art, ecology — yet never flood the market with product.
Each collaboration is a limited conversation, not a takeover. That approach preserves desirability and keeps collectors and connoisseurs constantly intrigued.

Lessons for brands and consumers

For brands:

• Align collaborations with core values, not trends.
• Prioritize long-term integrity over short-term attention.
• Let craft drive innovation, not the other way around.

For consumers:

• Seek pieces that tell a story. True collaborations carry intention.
• Recognize that scarcity, in Hermès’ world, is not marketing — it’s philosophy.
• Understand that craftsmanship is timeless; technology, fashion, and trends all orbit it.

If you want to know more about Hermès fashion, you can visit our Hermès blog.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Hermès Collaborations

Sustainability as the next frontier

Following MycoWorks, Hermès is likely to explore other bio-materials — plant-based silks, recycled metals, regenerative farming partnerships. The maison could lead the way in making sustainability luxurious, not performative.

Technology beyond wearables

Imagine a Hermès-crafted interface or home device — where digital minimalism meets analog elegance. The brand has the credibility to make “quiet tech” beautiful.

Global artistic collaborations

As Hermès expands in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, future projects may feature regional artists reinterpreting its motifs. Imagine an Indian block-print scarf series or an African artisan reinterpretation of Hermès saddlery — rooted in cross-cultural craftsmanship.

Architecture and immersive design

With Hermès’ growing home and interior line, future collaborations could involve architects and furniture designers, creating spaces that reflect the maison’s aesthetic — tactile, serene, balanced.

Conclusion

Hermès’ collaborations are lessons in restraint, elegance, and intentional innovation. Each partnership — whether with Apple, MycoWorks, artists, or automakers — proves that a brand can evolve without erasing its roots.
While other labels use collaborations to shout, Hermès uses them to speak softly and meaningfully. Its message is timeless: craftsmanship is the true constant in a changing world.
The house’s creative partnerships show how luxury can innovate without losing integrity — and how tradition, when handled with imagination, can stay forever young.