As soon as I knew we were going to New York, I made sure we didn’t leave without visiting Hermès Man on Madison. Located at 690 Madison Avenue (directly opposite the Hermès flagship store), it is the first ever exclusive Hermès store dedicated to men.
The store is fairly new as it just opened last February 9, 2010 so imagine my surprise after seeing this.
It seemed like they were doing repairs to the façade so it was a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience and we took some pictures of their window displays.
There are four floors in the store so we were really curious to check out each level. We felt a bit out of place though as we were the only ones in the store at that time. Luckily there was a nice Sales Associate who gave us a tour of each level. It’s too bad they don’t allow taking pictures inside but it was such a surreal experience especially after reaching the fourth level. The entire floor is dedicated to personal, made-to-measure service, from customised ties to shirts, to fully bespoke jackets and suits.
I told her it was very nice of her to give us a tour but we can’t afford anything customized or bespoke from Hermès. She probably saw in our faces how excited we were to be up there so she just smiled and continued on telling us the process of ordering anything customized. I was surprised when she opened the closets and allowed us to touch and feel the suits and jackets inside. One thing that caught my eye was a crocodile jacket (priced around $48,000) that she took off the rack and handed to me. Let’s just say I was like a little kid in a candy store.
Anyway, we were on a tight budget but I wanted to get something to remind me of this wonderful trip so I bought a nice souvenir.
It’s a new tie design from Hermès called Lucky Ties made in heavy silk. This one has the lucky 8 ball. What I like about this particular tie is that it is iridescent. Depending on how light hits it or viewed on a certain angle, the colour changes from grey to blue, or from bronze to brown.
I’ve certainly had a lot of luck in my life and getting this tie will hopefully bring me more. Perhaps a few more trips in the future?