Hermès Makes Birkin Bags. It Also Makes Stage Plays

A curious stage play has taken over Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District. Its set is decorated with silk scarves, orange boxes, and luxury handbags, and its central character, an equestrian squire, wanders through the historic Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré boutique of a little brand known as Hermès.You read that right. One of the world’s oldest luxury houses has gone theatrical, translating the brand’s long history into Hermèstories — a surrealist odyssey written by Pauline Bayle and directed by Joe Hufton that runs through November 8. It’s all very in line with Hermès’ crafty reputation, down to the sound effects, which are made live on stage with materials used by the house. We’re in a peak era of fashion brands using art to build their fantasies, but it usually stops at slick ads (see: the very Akira spot for Our Legacy, or Dior’s hand-drawn holiday film). Animation is just one tool in the toolbox. Only Hermès, craft-focused king, seems savvy enough to use all of them — art and illustration and stage plays, too. This isn’t the first time the luxury brand has dipped into the theatrical, though — it isn’t even the first time this play has been put on stage. Hermèstories was first seen at Milan’s Teatro Franco Parenti in 2025, and Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has commissioned performance works through its New Setting program for years. Still, with its Hong Kong edition, the luxury brand has offered a whimsical reminder of what sets Hermès apart in the industry. Your Highsnobiety privacy settings have blocked this Instagram post.While other brands are content to hire illustrators for ads or throw their money behind major art institutions, the French luxury house does a bit of everything — casting its creative net wide. Take animation, the artistic flex of the moment for fashion brands. Scroll through the Instagram pages of many a major fashion label right now, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled onto Disney’s. Handmade visuals have never been hotter, as we noted at the start of the year. Illustration has been infiltrating advertising and seasonal campaign teasers at everything from Chanel to Prada — the latter of which literally used former Disney animators to bring its Holiday 2026 campaign ads to life. It makes sense as a brand strategy: when we’re this deep in the sludgy trenches of AI slop, hiring an illustrator to zhush up your ads is low-hanging fruit. Your Highsnobiety privacy settings have blocked this Instagram post.It fits that a house this old would have perfected its formula by now, but it’s still impressive to see Hermès flex its artistic output. Its social feed regularly features animations by a rotating cast of international artists. Seoul-based illustrator Oyow's kaleidoscopic visuals sit next to a film from Argentinian artist Juan R. Lage, whose trio of cartoon characters strolls into a Hermès store, looking like something out of an Adventure Time offshoot. Over 50 artists were commissioned by the brand last year for social content, and for many other labels that’d be enough. But zoom out and a constellation of other creative endeavors are in orbit: the Hermès website recently added a series of paper illustrations drawn by Sarah Martinon and animated by Armand Béraud, and it's tapped major artists to contribute patterns and prints for decades. Add a touring stage play to the mix, and you start to see just why nobody is doing it like fashion’s elder giant. Your Highsnobiety privacy settings have blocked this Instagram post.Plenty of brands put serious money behind art, be it through physical institutions like the Fondation Cartier or Fondazione Prada or through funding schemes like Louis Vuitton’s recent sponsorship of the Frick Collection in New York. This kind of patronage ensures the fashion house’s name is tied to exhibitions. Hermès, though, is doing something far quieter: folding art into the very fabric of its brand identity, tying craft to how it sells its products and tells its story. Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit our SHOPPER page and subscribe to the newsletter for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.