< PreviousCLOCKWISE FROM TOP: A custom console and mirror in the stairwell. The ceramic vases are by Floris Wubben. The exterior chair is from Baxter; the fi rst fl oor sitting room has one of the best views in the house. The armchair is a reissued Gio Ponti design from Molteni&C and the fl oor lamp is from Bert Frank; the master suite dressing room. OPPOSITE PAGE: Lush, fragrant landscaping frames the swimming pool terrace 70 AR E N A/ C a nne s AD_033_66-73_Arena_Cannes_11304550.indd 7024/06/2020 09:54:17 PMAD_033_66-73_Arena_Cannes_11304550.indd 7124/06/2020 09:54:32 PMThe master bedroom has a statement headboard is dressed in Rubelli Vasarelly fabric. The Pierre Jeanneret chairs are from the Jacques Dworczak Collection. Atelier du Parquet whitened oak fl oors. 72 AR E N A/ C a nne s AD_033_66-73_Arena_Cannes_11304550.indd 7225/06/2020 08:57:24 AM133 AR E N A/ Namibi a One of the fi ve bedrooms has a tub by Devon & Devon and Volevatch brass taps. The stools are a classic Charlotte Perriand design. AD_033_66-73_Arena_Cannes_11304550.indd 7325/06/2020 08:57:36 AMUR B A N JUNG L E Hermès’ new wallpaper and fabric collection is brimming with drawings of lush, utopian cities ST Y L E / H e rm e s AD_033_74-77_Arena_Hermes Maison_11307161.indd 7424/06/2020 09:55:44 PMAR E N A/ C ra ft 75 T he stories we like to tell are built by many hands and for each collection we collaborate with new artists or illustrators,” explains Florence Lafarge, Hermès’ creative director of home textiles and wallpapers. “They all have their own way of looking at the world around them. This year all the drawings were made by hand.” The roll call of creatives selected to contribute to Hermès’ tenth fabric and wallpaper collection includes the architect Thibaut Rassat, illustrator Kevin Lucbert and designer Anne Roussel. Each has made their marks – some energetic, others languid or tightly controlled – using varied tools from the artists’ kit, including pencil, felt pen, ballpoint pen and watercolour. The conceptual thread that runs through the resulting designs, which range from Mediterranean cityscapes and abstract fl owers to lush tropicalia, or an intoxicating blend of both, is “a desire to reconcile urban life with nature, to merge inside and outside,” adds Lafarge, “The drawings we have chosen reveal this ability to observe the world and transcend our environment.” While the impulse behind the designs is contemplative, the results are invariably vibrant – and, as this is Hermès, meticulously crafted. The storied house has a rich history of pattern-making to draw from, but the challenge for Lafarge was to ensure that the “volumes and expressions are faithfully transposed to the heart of the material, be it textile or paper.” Her own background is in textile design (prior to joining Hermès Lafarge was style director of Kenzo Maison for a decade) so the construction of the fabrics in the collection was a particular focus: “My passion for weaving has led me to always seek the balance between the materiality of the fabric and the expected expression of the drawing. One does not go without the other; before being a continuous graphic, AD_033_74-77_Arena_Hermes Maison_11307161.indd 7524/06/2020 09:55:50 PMfabric is a tiny architecture. Research in textile design forces us to innovate and push a technique to its limits.” The most complex design to realise though, was Lucbert’s vast wall decoration, Tropical Swim, a “kind of giant storyboard” depicting a swimming pool in a fantasy garden with snow-capped mountains beyond. It is extraordinarily detailed, especially considering the engraving of the drawing was made with coloured Bic pens. “Kevin is particularly fond of this tool because it allows him to give shades of colour, shadows and light like an old engraving,” explains Lafarge, “Each area reveals a particular texture, the leaves of oily plants, the water, the mountains.” The eff ect is dazzling, and it’s the standout in the collection for the sheer audacity of the artist’s vision and artisans’ acuity in bringing it to life. Lafarge’s favourite design has a more quiet, unexpected beauty; Aqua Rosa reads only as multicoloured chevrons at fi rst glance, but closer inspection reveals abstracted fl owers, recalling the rippled refl ection of petals in a pool of water. “I liked this idea of remoteness, of taking a step back from our fi rst perception and pausing in our hectic, urban lives,” she says. An apt metaphor for our times, then. hermes.com CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: Quatre cavaliers by Thibaut Rassat. Rendered in coloured pencil, the Hermès store at Faubourg Saint-Honoré and the neighbourhood streets become wallpaper; Sur les toits by Thibaut Rassat. A watercolour view of rooftop terraces evokes a Mediterranean town. Cleverly, the panorama off ers a three-metre-high decoration that can be extended ad infi nitum; Aqua rosa by Anne Roussel and Veronika Wildgruber. Almost imperceptible at fi rst glance, chevrons drawn in felt-tip pen reveal large, enigmatic roses which appear to be fl oating on water. This wallpaper harmonises with three fabrics of the same name. AD_033_74-77_Arena_Hermes Maison_11307161.indd 7624/06/2020 09:56:01 PMAR E N A/ C ra ft ABOVE: Cité archipel by Kevin Lucbert. In this dream-like design, landscapes of mountains, lakes, glaciers and wild islands sit amid urban traffi c – all drawn in ballpoint pen. An emblematic Hermès horse and carriage, mingles with the little cars that criss-cross the wallpaper. OPENING PAGES: Tropical Swim Decor by Kevin Lucbert. This captivating scene combines the outside world with an original representation of a villa interior. The large decorative design, measuring 2 by 3.42 metres and made using ballpoint pen, reproduces the quiver of both line and hand. 77 AD_033_74-77_Arena_Hermes Maison_11307161.indd 7724/06/2020 09:56:19 PMMASTER STROKE French interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch has deftly transformed a 1910 Brussels house into a contemporary, art-filled home Words Ian Phillips Photography Jose Manuel Alorda 78 AR E N A/ B ru s sel s AD_033_78-85_Arena_Brussels_11264673.indd 7824/06/2020 09:58:02 PMLighting by Jeff Zimmermann is suspended above a Yovanovitch- designed table and chairs in the dining room. Patinated steel covers the walls. OPPOSITE PAGE: The majestic spiral staircase that winds its way up three stories. AD_033_78-85_Arena_Brussels_11264673.indd 7924/06/2020 09:58:10 PMNext >