design magazine

Article by George Chronopoulos
Posted on March 10th, 2012
in Interiors, Fashion & Hermes

Window displays designed for the re-opening of the just-renovated Hermès boutiques in Sogo Yokohama and Takashimaya Tokyo department stores. If you look closely at tools placed between the trees, you notice that the pieces actually go through them, and are segmented by them. Tool at the front of the window disappear into the forest, only to reappear, peeing from behind a tree at the back of the display.

Figure and ground become indecipherable with solid and cut-out ‘trees’ that might be one or the other, and whose color scheme of white and brown likewise provides no clues. Tool change brightness and hue almost imperceptibly, further warping the vision.

The result is a strange sensation in which contradictions and depth suddenly appear to passers-by as their angle of vision changes. This was Nendo's own interpretation of Hermès casual, almost tongue-in-cheek playfulness.