Hermès

Hermès was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès as a Parisian harness workshop serving European nobility and the carriage trade. As automobiles displaced horses in the early 20th century, his grandson Émile-Maurice Hermès pivoted the company toward leather goods, luggage, and small accessories — the first Hermès silk scarf appeared in 1937, the Kelly bag (originally the Sac à Dépêches) appeared in 1935 and was renamed for Grace Kelly in 1956, and the Birkin (1984) was conceived in conversation with Jane Birkin on an Air France flight. Hermès remains family-controlled to this day — the Hermès-Dumas-Guerrand families hold roughly 67% of the equity through a holding company, which fended off Bernard Arnault's hostile LVMH stake-building in 2010-2014. Production is famously decentralised across roughly 60 workshops across France, with single artisans typically completing entire bags from start to finish. The wait list for a Birkin is institutional. The creative direction has been led by Pierre-Alexis Dumas (artistic direction) and Véronique Nichanian (men's, in role since 1988, one of the longest creative tenures in luxury). Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski led women's RTW from 2014 to 2024; the new women's role passed to Grace Wales Bonner in 2025. Hermès' financial performance over the past decade has been the strongest of any major luxury house — slow growth, expanding margins, and a customer base that treats acquisition as an investment.