Hermes’s Hot Couture

“There have been challenging times, of course, over the years,” says Mr Dumas. “Each generation has to take care of the issues which they wished they did not have to deal with. So I took it with determination, but humility, to deal with the issues that I had, and we are very determined as a family to keep a company that the seventh and eighth generations are going to be proud of.” As a family-run company, Hermes is in a position to pursue a stance of autonomy and independence through the ranks of its business, something unheard of in an industry where every make of mannequin in a display window or mix of merchandise in each store is dictated by headquarters.