By Zach James
French fashion and leather goods brand Hermès is thinking outside the box with its latest seasonal marketing endeavor.
Titled “The Endless Line,” the maison’s spring campaign takes on a surrealist aesthetic, a signature of the label’s promotional releases. Unveiled this month, the initiative spans the latest apparel, jewelry, footwear, furniture and home decor collections, with the items seen either adorning the cast or appearing as massive, looming figures in this conceptual world.
“Hermès has consistently presented their brand world as a dream: a surreal luxury landscape of beautiful objects, environments and people,” said Daymon Bruck, chief creative officer at The O Group, New York.
“This latest campaign is a continuation of that brand vision but with some distinct differences,” Mr. Bruck said. “By focusing on the line as a central campaign element, Hermès is elevating the importance of both classic design principles and the continuity of their legacy craftsmanship – both critical brand aspects for their loyal customers and admirers.”
Mr. Bruck is not affiliated with Hermès, but agreed to comment as an industry expert
Stylistic Vision
French freelance creative director Fabien Mouillard is behind the project, which sees a cast of characters entrenched in a landscape of unending sky.
An international collection of models, including Ella Mccutcheon, Erick Saningo, He Cong and Mathieu Simoneau, serve as the faces of the initiative, granting the surreal imagery a wider appeal in major global markets.
Hermès presents “The Endless Line”
For the campaign, which spans multiple short films and stills, the talents are captured crossing the titular Endless Line, which serves as the only solid ground in this artistically conceptual landscape.
While traversing the two-dimensional plane, the models are faced with larger-than-life versions of everyday objects, such as a rocking horse, a wheel and decor from the Hèrmes spring collection; they also see massive versions of themselves lounging in this unreal realm. The Endless Line itself is said to symbolize the connective tissue and theming between the brand’s releases across various sectors.
Shot by French fashion photographer Nathaniel Goldberg, the initiative marks the latest collaboration between the creative talent and Mr. Mouillard, who have worked on multiple Hermès marketing launches in the past several years.
Now, the duo has come together to define a new thematic device for the brand, the Endless Line.
“The focus on the line as a metaphor in this campaign also reinforces the continual brand relevance Hermès has achieved as a heritage brand in the present time, and as this campaign implies, into the future as well,” said Mr. Bruck.
“While this campaign is not as fanciful as others from the recent past, Hermes is reminding their audience of the brand’s status as a classic purveyor of timeless elegance.”
Embracing Unreality
This realm of the weird and unusual is one that Hermès has resided in for many years across multiple mediums.
Last year, the maison released “On The Wings of Hermès: The Movie,” a recorded version of its travelling stage show (see story). The film follows the magic behind the performance’s absurd imagery, which includes dancing handbags and papercraft pegasus galloping through the sky.
The brand is seeking to create memorable moments that drive deeper thought on its selection of apparel, homeware and more. Image credit: Hermès/Nathaniel Goldberg
The brand has also brought these abstract artistic sensibilities to its stores through various pop-ups and activations (see story).
Hermès is far from the only luxury label surrounding themselves in the surreal.
Last year, German automaker Mercedes-Maybach presented three avant-garde art pieces crafted in collaboration with American photographer and film director David LaChapelle, capturing its vehicles alongside horses, the pyramids, aliens and more absurdist items (see story).
Meanwhile, French footwear maker Roger Vivier took a cinematic approach to op art, an off-kilter style popularized in the 1960s (see story).
Original article published in Luxury Daily, February 28, 2025
