I was honored to create 2025’s holiday windows for the Hermès flagship store on Madison Avenue. This was our second project together (the first was in Vancouver in 2019), and it was a wonderful experience from start to finish, over almost one year. At every turn, the team reassured me, "We don't want to influence your artistic process. Just let us know how we can help."

They gave me multiple tours around the store, and while not required to use any merchandise, I chose to incorporate their wonderful silks as sculptural materials in my installations. On the left are several gorgeous square scarves transformed into birds. On the right, a rain shower of Twillys over a luxurious picnic.

The inspiration for these windows was the idea of "escape." Escape from reality, gravity, and responsibility. I love making window installations because they are inviting to everyone, day or night. From holiday shoppers, local neighbors, to people riding the M1 bus, everyone gets to enjoy them.

Hermès devotes an entire window to commissions by artists (the left is "the art window"), but in my typical "go big or go home" fashion, I proposed creating a cut paper installation in the right window as well.

Some of the paper pieces in these installations were previously in projects for the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Art Museum, the Museum of Art and Design, and exhibitions in London, Portugal and beyond. I also have work inside of the store on the first floor. These include pieces from my recent BRINE series and two from my never before shown FISSURES, which I made during the Covid lockdown.

Endless thanks to Denis Schmitz, Jesse Davis, Mark Coats and the entire Hermès team in Paris and New York.

Photos: Skot Yobauje