INTO THE HORSESCAPE: Hermès turns the horse into a language of movement and desire

The horse is everywhere in Hermès, yet in its ninth Haute Bijouterie collection, it is almost nowhere to be seen.

There is no need for literal portraiture. A curved bit, a lasso caught mid movement, the disciplined geometry of a stirrup, the quiet strength of a blacksmith’s nail are enough to summon its presence. In Into the Horsescape, Pierre Hardy approaches the equestrian world not as an archive of familiar symbols, but as a landscape of memory, energy and sensation.

The collection brings together 90 new creations and 42 heritage pieces, tracing the long relationship between Hermès, the body and the objects designed to accompany movement. But this is not a retrospective exercise. Saddlery becomes fantasy. Function becomes seduction. The horse appears less as an image than as a pulse running through every line.

THE HORSE, WITHOUT THE HORSE

“This is a metonymical collection,” explains Pierre Hardy, Creative Director of Hermès Jewellery. “The horse itself is barely seen, but its symbolism lives within each piece.”

That distance from the literal is what gives the collection its power. Hardy does not recreate the animal. He captures what surrounds it: tension, rhythm, restraint, momentum, protection and freedom.

In Étreintes, the curves of equestrian bits are extended and interwoven around intense emeralds. Lasso Disco translates the spiral of a rope into angled baguette cut diamonds and natural asymmetry. Attelage d’or revisits bridles and buckles, returning to Hermès’ origins as a harness maker and saddler while releasing these objects from their practical purpose.

The references are recognisable, but never fixed. They are stretched, abstracted and made intimate.

WHEN THE ORDINARY BECOMES PRECIOUS

At the heart of Into the Horsescape is a transformation that feels unmistakably Hermès. The everyday object is observed so closely that it begins to reveal something extraordinary.

A blacksmith’s nail becomes the foundation of Clou de forge lumière, where diamonds turn an essential tool into a radiant form. The stirrup is softened by moonstones, tiger’s eye and opals in Étriers. Sellette begins with an eighteenth century miniature saddle from the Émile Hermès Collection, then reduces it once again to the scale of the wrist.

The result is not simply decorative. It is almost surreal.

Hardy describes this process as telling the story of Hermès through its relationship with time and materials, then allowing imagination to transform that history into adornment. A humble object can become a jewel. A fragment of craft can become a myth. The ordinary is not erased, but elevated.

JEWELLERY IN MOTION

Hardy’s first concern is not the gemstone viewed in isolation. It is the larger image: the silhouette, the gesture, the way a person moves through space.

That idea gives the collection its cinematic energy.

Pieces do not merely sit on the body. They bend, encircle, loosen and respond. Cavale follows the undulating lines of equestrian straps through gradients of white and brown diamonds. Hermès Apparat combines protection with flexibility, echoing the hood that covers a horse’s head and neck. In Centaure, the horse’s hoof becomes a study in contrast between black jade, polished gold and invisible set diamonds.

Some pieces are architectural. Others appear almost fluid. Symmetry creates structure, while asymmetry introduces life.

For Hardy, the body is not a passive setting for jewellery. It is part of the composition. A necklace changes with the breath. A bracelet becomes complete through movement. A jewel is finished not when it leaves the workshop, but when it finds the person who gives it presence.

COLOUR AS INSTINCT

The palette of Into the Horsescape speaks quietly, but with precision.

Black jade recalls the density and lustre of a hoof. Rose gold and brown diamonds suggest the warmth of a horse’s coat. Emeralds emerge like flashes of landscape, while moonstones, opals, tourmalines and chrysoprase bring unexpected softness to the equestrian vocabulary.

Hardy approaches stones almost like a painter, less interested in hierarchy than in atmosphere. Precious and semi precious stones coexist, chosen for the relationships they create with one another and with the body.

The effect is never simply opulent. Colour becomes emotion, texture and memory.

A SECRET CONVERSATION

Despite its scale and technical ambition, Into the Horsescape ultimately feels deeply personal.

Hardy speaks of jewellery as a message of love, power, connection and sometimes allegiance. It can be public, but it can also remain private, understood only by the person wearing it or by someone standing close enough to notice.

This intimacy is what prevents the collection from becoming a spectacle of craftsmanship alone. Behind the emeralds, diamonds and complex articulations lies a more compelling question: what does jewellery allow us to become?

Can it protect us? Elevate us? Constrain us? Reveal us?

In Into the Horsescape, the answer is never singular. Like the horse itself, jewellery can carry strength and grace, discipline and freedom, movement and stillness at once.

The horse may remain almost invisible, but its spirit is unmistakable. It lives in the tension of a line, the curve of a jewel and the instant when material finally surrenders to the body.

Text: Lidia Ageeva

Courtesy: Hermès