THE HERMÈS EFFECT

Since ancient times, silk has been inextricably linked with society’s upper echelons. In Europe, the home of silk has been in and around Lyon, in France, primarily because of Louis XI’s decision in 1563 to take advantage of the area’s trade routes with the Rhône, the Mediterranean and, by road, to Italy. And if silk were an empire, there would be one dynasty with true dominion over it: Hermès.

While Lyon has been home to Hermès’ silk operations since 1937, the house’s sericultural partner is in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. An eco-friendly farming co-operative, it produces silk of the highest quality. The biological development of silk is remarkable, too. A female butterfly of the species produces roughly 300 to 500 eggs, and their microscopic offspring eat up to 50,000 times their initial weight from the mulberry tree’s leaves. The larvae evolve into cocoons and internally secrete a silk filament. If you were to unravel one, you’d be left with a silk thread