The Battle for Hermès



WSJ.’s exclusive tour of the back rooms and ateliers of the celebrated French fashion house illustrates why Hermès is the coveted jewel that LVMH’s Bernard Arnault wants for his crown.

By DANA THOMAS

Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the creative director of Hermès, is sitting in his office at the company’s 131-year-old seat on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, talking about what it’s like to run the most respected major luxury brand in the world. “My job,” says the lean, formal 44-year-old and sixth-generation descendant of the company’s founder, “is to keep the strong creativity of Hermès alive. To nourish the rigor and the vision . . . to make these values vibrate.” Read more