2019 Hermès Shawl Le Jardin de Leila au Bloc

Hermès Shawl Le Jardin de Leïla au Bloc 140cm

Photo Courtesy of Hermès

Hermès Scarf Le Jardin de Leïla 90cm

Photo Courtesy of Hermès

“Hermès wouldn’t be Hermès without Leïla,” said Axel Dumas, the chief executive of the luxury French maison at the opening of the “Hermès à Tire d’Aile: Les Mondes de Leïla Menchari” (Hermès Takes Flight: The Worlds of Leïla Menchari) exhibit in 2017.

Tunisian-born Leïla Menchari (27 September 1927 – 4 April 2020) is the maestro who created the window display at the Hermès flagship store at 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré for over 35 years. She has created over 137 window displays since joining the Hermès decoration team in 1961. The company’s former chairman and artistic director Jean-Louis Dumas appointed her as the director of window displays and the silk colours committee from 1978 until 2013.

Photo Courtesy of Dar Hensen

Hermès paid homage to Leïla Menchari and issued the carré Le Jardin de Leïla in 2014. The carré was reproduced as the Le Jardin de Leïla au Bloc châle 140 in Autumn/Winter 2019. Some Hermès lovers may have also found this exceptional beauty on the USA official website in the past two years.

The description about the châle from the Hermès booklet is as follows: Gardens inhabit the imagination of landscape gardener, engraver and illustrator François Houtin for whom the plant world is an endless source of inspiration. Some years ago he composed a dreamy personal interpretation of Leïla Menchari’s Mediterranean garden. Menchari discovered this garden in her native Tunisia at the age of 10 and it has inspired decades of creations since. She describes “creepers hugging enormous trees”, “vegetation inhabited by the rustle of bamboo in the breeze”, “the surrealism of this nature” and “the image of paradise”. A few seasons back this scarf was decorated with embroidery, stamps of multicoloured flowers, blooming corollas and ornamental foliage. These colourful motifs are reproduced here through the magic of block printing.

Not far away from the famous Villa Sebastian in Hammamet Tunisia is Leïla Menchari’s villa, Dar Henson. In 1920, an Anglo-American couple Violet and Jean Henson was one of the first foreigners who settled in Hammamet after they discovered its charm. Soon, they built an Arab-Moorish-style villa with an exotic garden near the seaside. Later, a wealthy Romanian architect Georges Sebastian was inspired by them and built an unusual villa nearby.

Leïla Menchari discovered this garden at the age of 10. Since then, she has had a close connection with Violet and Jean Henson. After the couple’s death, Leïla Menchari was still devoted to the villa and its garden. In 2003, Hermès launched its first perfume in the Parfums-Jardins collection, Un Jardin en Méditerranée. It was inspired by all the poetic works in the Tunisian garden of Leïla Menchari.

On the châle Le Jardin de Leïla au Bloc, a total of over 50 native and exotic plants are dispersed over nine sections of scenes by the French award-winning artist François Houtin. They are the floral ornament, the front entrance of the villa, the two lily ponds, the two ancient Roman columns and fragments, the colonnade courtyard, the water fountains and the peacock scene. Palms, bamboos, cactus, eucalyptus, agave, water lilies, citrus fruit trees and other plants are distributed on the châle. All the elements tell countless stories of history, humanities, ecology, inspiration and change harmoniously.

Carrion Cactus

At the centre of the châle, the artist illustrated the title in twig fonts. A floral ornament embraces the title with nine types of blooming flowers such as lily, plumeria, morning glory, carrion cactus etc.

Photo Courtesy of Dar Hensen

Followed by the tile floor at the lower left corner, the words HERMES PARIS lead the viewers through an arch stone gate to a Moorish gazebo. The huge Monstera deliciosa occupies the area by the gate, bamboos provide shades and soothing whisper sounds, and the tranquillity of the scene is extended with a rectangle pond dotted with small clusters of water lilies. The local people said it was Jean Henson who introduced water lilies, Persian jasmine and lotus to Tunisia.

Photo Courtesy of Dar Hensen

Another lily pond is arranged at the upper left corner. The pond has four broken columns at each corner, and one large lily pad stone sculpture stands on the edge and faces the breathtaking panorama of the Hammamet Gulf. The artist illustrates the scene towards the sculpture with two dragon’s blood trees to form a tree archway.

Photographed by Guillaume de Laubier

On the right is the main entrance to Leïla Menchari’s villa, trees rustle overhead with soft shafts of natural light, and the cool place is a popular spot for both humans and pheasants. A male peacock shakes and rattles its fanned-out train feathers under the citrus trees at the lower right corner.

The artist François Houtin meticulously illustrates the Mediterranean garden in his signature utopian style. The details are identified in the photos of Leïla Menchari’s villa which shows his respect for every element of the property. Eight sections of the scene towards the floral ornament at the centre, the patterns on the châle would flow gracefully over your shoulders and back. The arch features at the four corners highlight the relationship between the elements, they also create a sense of balance and harmony in the art piece. Not only does the artist pay attention to details but also masters the art of compositional flow.

The additional special effects are applied on the châle Le Jardin de Leïla au Bloc, the colourful plants, flutter butterflies and tiny insects seem to turn the dream-like utopian garden into reality in slow motion. The châle successfully combines Leïla Menchari’s memory and François Houtin's imagination. Like Leïla Menchari said: “Anyone entering this place is struck by the graceful beauty of its elements: they will embrace you, escape you, or reconstruct you in the image of your vision of the world, your sensibility, and your relationship to the elements. Do we not say that a garden is the image of Paradise?” The master art piece elevates our mood, opens our visions and minds to the queen of enchantment, Leïla Menchari’s garden.

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