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Fleurs Et Papillons De Tissus (Flowers and Butterflies)

Start Date 11 October 2013
End Date 05 January 2014
Venue Musée des Tissus de Lyon
Location Lyon, France
Curator Maximilien Durand and Claire Berthommier
Designer Christine Henry
Exhibition display of scarves and display cabinets

The exhibitionorganized by Hermes and the Museum of Fabrics, celebrates the genesis of a square designed by Christine Henry. It was in the museum’s collections that she found an inexhaustible source of inspiration to create Flowers and Butterflies of Fabrics. “This square was really born thanks to the ancient fabrics collected at the Museum of Fabrics,” explains Christine Henry. “And the floral motifs depicted on the fabrics were the criterion essential selection of the fabrics I have selected. From Coptic Egypt to the present day, the artists who these fabrics have very often found their inspiration in nature and although obviously in the flowers. I tried to represent this invisible bond that unites the work of these artists that centuries sometimes separate. For this purpose, I chose the symbol of butterflies and their wings in fan. Each butterfly carries a specific fabric. And the flowers in the background have their origin in these same fabrics. » 

The Museum of Fabrics was founded in 1856 to renew contemporary creation through the best examples of the past. It is to extend this mission that it opens today one of the largest houses of contemporary creation since 1837, the Hermes house. Together, they share the same values and attachment to know-how and excellence. The links between the museum and Hermes are strong. For many years, the museum has Fabrics brings squares made by Hermes into its collections in its workshops located in the heart of Lyonnais, the cradle of silk. The collection of Hermes squares is one of the first in France. 

This is the first time that the museum’s treasures inspire the birth of a square at home Hermes. This required 28 printing frames to transcribe all the subtlety of the colors and poetry of the drawings implemented by Christine Henry.

A silk square inspired by the collections of the Fabric Museum presents the original design proposed by Christine Henry, the decomposed of the different printing frames, the colors in which the square and the original works that inspired the new creation of the square of Maison Hermes.

Image © Musée des Tissus – Pierre Verrier.