By Bag Snob Tina on October 29, 2012 11:09 am Tina Craig

One year ago, the peerless – but often geometry-obsessed – Pierre Hardy submitted his sketches for the Hèrmes Jewellery-Bags, and the jewelers’ reactions were less than positive. All maintained that a true hybrid of bag-jewelry could not be done. But done it has been, and so brilliantly at that. The accessories designer has succeeded in elevating the house of Hèrmes to heights even the snobbiest of us had not imagined.
Made to remind you of spectacular bracelets, miniature variations of the Kelly and Birkin are anything but small. Production involves over a thousand hours of labor, and that’s no stretch of the imagination! Their Mailles crocodile has been chained with golden rings and studded with countless glittering details. Exquisitely beautiful from any angle, open or closed, these rose-gold gems are intricately detailed down to the four-pronged diamonds (instead of just three prongs), tiny key and padlock, swivel clasp, and striking flap.

It all begins with crocodile skin reproduced into plaques of gold. Applying it from the Hèrmes Library of Skins, the skin was tested many different ways, a single piece too rigid. The scales must be separated, numbered, and created one by one, on a wax proto-type machine that secretly links them in middle. It’s all in the technique: the precision-perfect system of using invisible, mobile little bridges makes these scales more supple than real croc!
As thrilling as it is to see the classics cast in enchanting rose-gold, the Nausicaa jewellery-bag is a new legend in its own right. With a twenties-flapper twist and each fine-crafted link hand-joined to the others, this is as glamorous as a hobo gets.

Hardy and Hèrmes have succeeded in blending precious stones and iconic bags for a collection that defines the word covetable.