In 1821, a 20-year-old innkeeper’s son named Thierry Hermès, who grew up in the German textile town of Krefeld, moved to France’s Normandy region and apprenticed as a saddler. Eleven years later, he opened his own workshop in Paris, where he sold harnesses, bridles and saddles crafted with a stitch that can only be done by hand. After the advent of the automobile, Thierry’s grandson Émile-Maurice Hermès expanded the company’s offerings to include driving accessories and luggage trunks, as well as clocks and wristwatches with leather casings and straps. In 1923, the house even introduced a collection of dog collars, which were elaborately decorated with leather studs, metal looped rings and fringed trimmings. They became so popular that women began wearing them as belts; as the story goes, the French couturier Marie Callot Gerber, whose dogs wore the collars, commissioned Hermès to reinterpret them as wrist cuffs.

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Persons: Thierry Hermès, Émile, Maurice Hermès, Marie Callot Gerber, Hermès Locations: Krefeld, Normandy, Paris