My personal style signifier is wearing a mix of colours. I really feel myself when I harmonise colour ranges; I think it’s because I work in a garden and observe all the different nuances of shade. One of my morning joys is to choose something orange, tangerine or mocha, for example, and match it with dark blue or forest green. I choose according to my mood. I like to feel feminine, usually in fitted but comfortable clothes as I’m very active. Most of the time it’s a bit boring: high-waisted trousers or a leather skirt, my Mira Stella long Hydrangea necklace and flat Hermès moccasins or sneakers. I almost never wear black.
Her pair of Hermès loafers © Édouard Jacquinet
The place that means a lot to me is my garden in Normandy. It’s so full of memories, children, family – it’s a place where we’re all together. I love the way we’re greeted by the hooting of the owl; she’s not happy about our presence on her territory, but we’re pleased to know she’s there. I made the garden with Mark Brown, the English gardener and botanist. My husband [Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas] and I inherited a wasteland that had been abandoned for 25 years. With Mark we cleared the land but didn’t work with landscapers; the garden is the gardener (I learnt that from my mother). We planted trees little by little to protect us from the wind and gave life back to the meadows; gradually, they became marvels. Fifteen years later, it’s a paradise for bees, birds and butterflies. It’s also where I started creating my jewellery; walking through the garden I saw that the flowers looked like jewels so I began to collect petals, leaves and seeds. Sea kale seeds and flax pods are tens of thousands of years old. The hydrangea is millions of years old. They underline the mystery of nature. We need to pass that message on to new generations.
