With a leather salon, Birkins and beauty aplenty, the amplified South Coast Plaza boutique includes a more complete array of the French house’s exacting métiers
Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL
The colors and textures of sea, sand and sky and the ascending Santa Ana mountains inspired the soft gradients of earth tones and lush natural materials inside Hermès’ new 7,100-square-foot South Coast Plaza boutique.
The newly expanded Costa Mesa space, appropriately designed in a horseshoe, includes three entrances with an exterior mural of clay and terracotta tones and an interior glass façade with a light-and-shadows effect created by wood claustra partitions. The Parisian architecture agency, RDAI, founded by Rena Dumas and now led by Denis Montel and Julia Capp, spearheaded the new space’s interiors, having previously designed the house’s Palo Alto and Beverly Hills locations, among countless international projects for Hermès.
Across the new boutique’s threshold, the terrazzo floor is inlaid with a mother of pearl and red marble stone mosaic with the house’s storied Faubourg pattern. Beaten sand walls extend the enveloping earthen palette. Silk scarves float in wooden grid-like frames while fine jewelry and the leather salon beckon with hand-made Kelly, Birkin and Haut à courroies bags that join Geta messengers and Bridado backpacks. Silk ties, shoes, timepieces, crystal, porcelain tablewear, and all manner of equestrian designs are here, as are perfumes and the orange-boxed Hermès beauty line including limited edition beige, rose and orange lipstick shades in refillable objects by Pierre Hardy lacquered in lush impressionistic hues.
Also inside is creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski’s spring women’s collection of precisely crafted leather shorts, coats, dresses, skirts and crop tops made in a neutral tonal shades of buttery yellow, sandy orange, black and white. Long-serving artistic director of menswear, Véronique Nichanian’s spring designs include genius reversible jackets, intarsia knitwear, bright yellow and pink cashmere sweaters and rope belts. Store exclusives include a surfboard design from Maori tattoo artist Te Rangitu Netana, rash guards in hues and patterns inspired in part by Hermès sports sweaters from the 1930s, and the pièce de résistance: a portable vinyl boombox with a vertical turntable and built-in audio system. Walls in the boutique’s VIP area are covered in silver larch wood marquetry and a private salon is dedicated to aftersales and repairs. Commissioned artwork by illustrator Filipe Jardim and photographer Marion Dubier-Clark reflect the coast-adjacent shop’s marine aesthetic.
3333 Bristol Street, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-437-1725
March 16, 2022
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