Hermès has previously presented ÉDITEUR D'HERMÈS projects, beginning with Josef Albers' "Homage to the Square" in 2008, followed by Daniel Buren's "Photo-souvenirs au carré – A Photo Album of Scarves" in 2010. For the third installment, a collaboration was realized with Sugimoto, whose approach to history and tradition through ancient artifacts and time-honored tools, creating original and contemporary expressions, resonated with Hermès' philosophy.

"Colours of Shadow" utilizes the principle of light refracting differently through various colors to create projected images from crystal prisms. Sugimoto has spent several years capturing the way sunlight, passing through these prisms, creates a world brimming with color each morning, documenting it on Polaroid film.

(c) Hiroshi Sugimoto / Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

Photo: Tadzio

Photo: Tadzio

From these, Sugimoto and Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès' Artistic Director, selected 20 Polaroids to be transferred onto silk. To perfectly capture and reproduce the delicate, intangible gradations recorded on the unstable medium of Polaroid, a large format of 140x140 centimeters was chosen. The technical challenge of printing on extremely lightweight silk twill was also overcome. The 20 designs will be sold in a limited edition of 7 pieces each, for a total of 140 scarves.

Colours of Shadow - Hiroshi Sugimoto_016

Colours of Shadow - Hiroshi Sugimoto_107