The Enchaînements libres collection lies at the heart of Hermès’ vision of fine jewellery, une joaillerie de la forme in which design is at the centre of the stylistic message, and materials are crafted to showcase the splendour of the precious stone and the virtuosity of the stone-setter’s hand. The technical conception, guided by the fundamental notion of a connection between beauty and use, sustains an intimate relationship between metal and the body.

The chain is at the core of the Hermès story. It tells a tale of boldness and innovation of form. A tale that draws on the house’s origins as a harness-maker and saddler and on the nautical world, with the anchor chain as a leitmotif. A tribute to the transformation of metal into jewellery, of raw material into sensual adornment, the Enchaînements
libres collection explores freedom in chains, playing with boundaries:

it is a study of form and excellence in fine jewellery. It offers an equilibrium between innovation and tradition, in which are found all the elements of this timeless grammar of forms whose beauty and uniqueness are revealed by the magic of a change of perspective, an optical illusion.

Pierre Hardy, creative director of Hermès jewellery, explores and disrupts this story. The elementary structures of a chain, isolated into as many primary figures... With total freedom, he explores their sculptural possibilities, works them into anamorphic compositions, plays with scale, exalts every detail. He reinvents the art of Hermès chain-making in a quest for extraordinary architectural forms. He designs free chains as one might write free verse – a meticulous harmony between
convention and innovation – offering 29 variants like as many dance steps.
 

Body, action, movement. Seizing movement, suspending it. This is the art of the sculptor and the dancer. It is also the art of the fine jeweller. The collection is an ode to the body in motion. Chains to celebrate the freedom of bodies? The paradox is embraced. It provides its momentum. Powerful and precious, the chain becomes an emblem for women: free, independent and bold. These forms are a reminder that to wear jewellery is to don a noble material in a close union that reveals a posture, a bearing of the head, that magnifies every gesture, emphasises the delicacy of a clasp. It is the ritual of adornment taken to its highest level of refinement.
 

Radiance, gestures, emotions. Crafted into individual emblematic forms destined to articulate, flex, come alive, the links reveal the disconcerting sensuality of gold embracing the body. Hidden, exposed, invisible, magnified, they are the subject of exhilarating variations. Rarely has the fluidity of precious metal and the flexibility of a chain, moulding to every curve, been so extensively explored. The points of contact are examined in minute detail for ergonomic perfection. Liberating movement, the power of each gesture, finding the point of fusion between metal and body.