Upon arriving at The Barker Hangar for the opening of Hermès’ “On the Wings of Hermès,” just across from Santa Monica’s Museum of Flying, guests were bubbling with curious anticipation. Given that Hermès is as detail-oriented in its activations, dinners, and cocktail gatherings as they are in their fine leather wares and silk scarves, attendees knew they were in for something special.
After each of the night’s attendees had trickled in from the vast parking lot, they were met with the show’s name in larger-than-life lettering. They then flowed into an even more vast and dimly lit studio that, following Friday night’s VIP debut, is now open to the public.
Inside, guests such as Natasha Lyonne, Chloe Zao, Grace Van Patten, Jasmine Tookes, and Storm Reid were promptly offered Champagne flutes for a mini cocktail hour before being ushered into the next room—a larger one with entirely blacked-out walls, ceiling, and floor. The space was outfitted with seven large projection screens on either wall. A narrator echoed on the speakers, taking spectators on the journey of Pegasus and the Quest for the Seven Sources. Dreamed up for Hermès by Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael and choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey, together with the Astragales dance company, the show featured a combination of live performance, emotive hand modeling, and cinematic visuals. 3D models of various landscapes sat below each projector and were manipulated by gloved hands, artfully caught in real-time by a videographer and depicted on the massive screen; the sequence, per a show program, is a metaphor for “the lightness that is omnipresent at Hermès,” a symbolization of the care with which its artisans approach their craft. Plus, it was a very artful display of some of Hermès’s most iconic pieces.
In another corner of the room sat elongated candle-adorned tables for dining following the show’s conclusion; the transition was executed right before the guests’ eyes and in an uncannily speedy fashion. Over a dinner provided by Los Angeles’ latest and buzziest, Funke (pesto pasta and savory prawns among the offering), there was lively chatter as everyone dissected the poetic experience they’d just enjoyed. For the most part, their minds were still on the opera-singing Kelly bags from Scene V. On the Wings continues through July 23.