Hermès Efforts to Preserve the Art of Craftsmen Creates More Jobs

When most people think of sustainable fashion, they think of resource preservation and efforts to minimize impacts on the environment. But a documentary film from Hermès shows the French luxury fashion house’s efforts to preserve a different resource — the artisan. And sustaining craftsmanship has another practical benefit: more jobs. “In France, like in many countries, in many western countries in recent years, all the manufacturing jobs disappeared and were replaced by nothing,” said Olivier Fournier, executive vice president compliance and organization development at Hermès International.   Hermès now employs about 5,000 craftsmen across France, Fournier said during a panel discussion about the documentary.  The documentary, which is actually nine mini-films strung together, takes the viewer from the countryside of France to Japan to London and back to Paris, in an attempt to demonstrate Hermès’ sustainable practices through the eyes of its craftsmen, supplier and customers. Six of the mini films were screened Monday night at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. Fournier and filmmaker Frederic Laffont were both in attendance. A glimpse inside the lives of a Japanese family that owns a bookbinder business in Kyoto highlights a form of paper marbling, also found in Hermès’ Lyon archives, that was believed

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