nendo

for Hermes

An installation for the 2012 mens collection at Hermes' flagship shop on the Ginza in Tokyo. We were asked to devise a system that would allow the shop to change some of the fixtures to launch successive new collections and could be installed without disruptions to the shop's normal
operations. We decided to place variably-proportioned cubic frames in a number of sites within the shop,
and to place fragments of mannequins and a few pieces from the collection in each one. When customers view the frames through iPhones and tablet computers, the mannequins and items can be seen in full and 'come alive' through moving, three-dimensional images. This augmented reality technology adds another spatial layer to the existing shop. It allows customers to cross back and forth between density and emptiness, fragments and the whole, and the real and virtual, and offers them a transiently beautiful spatial experience that recalls the collection's main visual image, 'smoke'.