The Equestrian

A book on Hermès by teacher jun jun — so I can love luxury goods not just for looking pretty, but by understanding the history and detail behind them.

Book · by teacher jun jun · pub. Books4us · Fashion & Taste · difficulty 🐎🐎

After many days, I finally found time to finish the book teacher jun jun wrote. I hope that with luxury goods I can go beyond a shallow "the design looks nice" or buying for buying's sake, and instead understand the history and detail behind them — so that if I'm ever lucky enough to own one, I'll cherish and use it more securely. The writing is plain and easy to follow, the narration direct; 200–300 pages took about an hour and a half. The parts that impressed me most are below 👇

A brief word on Hermès

Hermès (French pronunciation [ɛʁmɛs]), founded in 1837, is a famous French luxury brand specializing in leather, lifestyle accessories, home decor, perfume, jewelry, watches, and ready-to-wear (Wikipedia).

The inspiration behind the Hermès logo? "The Hermès logo depicts 'a duke standing before a fine horse, waiting for his distinguished guest to be seated.' It was inspired by the French painter Alfred de Dreux's work Le Duc attelé (a carriage harnessed, ready to ride). The painting was bought in 1920 by the then-heir Émile-Maurice Hermès, and from it he designed the brand logo used to this day."

From within — the history of Hermès

Founded in 1837, passed down through six generations of the family across three centuries. The book's accounts — the turnover of leaders, how they survived a near-hostile takeover, the story of how the bags were born — all deepened my understanding of the Hermès family's evolution, and their resolve to pass it down generation after generation.

From without — the styles of Hermès bags

As a total outsider who's never bought Hermès, the book introduces the big and small matters of these artisans' labor — not merely the differences between styles, but from leather and color down to the meaning behind each serial number and stamp. I read it with great relish. To understand the secrets behind a brand you love is such a happy thing, so I'm very grateful a veteran Hermès lover was willing to write a book sharing all this.

Where to buy? Everyone's "annual" quota?

The book also covers each bag's allocation ratio, difficulty of acquisition, and everyone's annual quota (it even lists your partner, which I found funny 🤣 — a partner who supports your bag-buying is truly a rare find), plus which regions make it easier to get your ideal bag, and so on. In short, it's the author's years of experience in the "equestrian ring"; learning from others' experience is sometimes a more efficient way to learn.

A few (few, few) thoughts

If you asked which brand can win everyone's favor and endure without heavy advertising, Hermès is definitely on the list — because it insists that every skilled artisan makes a high-quality bag stitch by stitch, unhurried (I'd even call them "works"). The book mentions a single bag might take several months to make; I saw how they pour their budget into the product rather than spending vast sums on ad marketing, only for the product to fall short of the ads. "Let the results speak" — I think that fairly represents Hermès's operating strategy.

But this also makes rarity precious, creating the strange phenomenon where people are willing to buy allocation goods just to get one bag. Which makes me deeply feel that, in a way, Hermès is like that classmate who isn't especially warm in personality yet has some quality that makes others want to befriend them — not eagerly chasing others' affection, yet always hugely popular, precisely because they did what they ought to do.

Simply put, this book isn't just a reference — it's more of a playbook. Anyone who wants to understand the Hermès brand a bit more, I highly recommend reading it!

An aside

Thanks to YouTube for recommending teacher jun jun's video back then, letting me glimpse this mysterious world of high luxury 😍. And Emma is really so adorable — you can tell she's a well-brought-up girl 👧; I'm charmed every time she appears ☺️

馬場 THE EQUESTRIAN

junjun 老師寫的愛馬仕之書，希望自己對精品不只是膚淺覺得設計好看，而是去了解背後的歷史與細節。

書｜作者 jun jun 老師｜出版 人類智庫｜分類 時尚品味｜閱讀難度 🐎🐎

時隔多日，終於抽出時間把 junjun 老師寫的書看完了，希望自己對於精品，可以不只是膚淺的覺得設計好看，或是為買而買，而是去了解其背後的歷史及細節，若以後有幸入手使用起來也會更加珍惜且踏實。文章淺顯易懂，敘述直白，2-300頁大概一個半小時就可以看完，全書最印象深刻的內容大概為以下幾部分👇

淺談愛馬仕？

愛馬仕（法語：Hermès，法語發音：[ɛʁmɛs]），成立於1837年，是法國著名奢侈品品牌。專門研究皮革、生活飾品、家居擺設、香水、珠寶、手錶和成衣。（維基百科）

愛馬仕商標的靈感來源？「愛馬仕的商標是『一位公爵站在駿馬前等待著他的貴賓上座』的畫面，靈感來自法國畫家 Alfred de Dreux 的畫作『Le Duc attelé（鞍轡已備，以供騎乘）』。這幅畫在1920年被當時的繼承人 Émile-Maurice Hermès 買下，以此畫作為靈感，設計出沿用至今的品牌商標。」

從裡——愛馬仕的歷史

愛馬仕創立於1837年，家族六代相傳，跨足三個世紀，書中提到的不管是經營者的輪替、如何挺過差點被惡意收購，以及包包誕生的故事等等，都讓我更加了解愛馬仕家族的沿革，還有他們想要代代傳承下去的決心？

到外——愛馬仕包的款式

作為一個從來沒有買過愛馬仕的外行人，此書中介紹了這些工匠心血的大小事，不只是單純的介紹款式分別，大至皮革、顏色，小至各種編號及刻印所代表的意義等等，都讓我讀得津津有味，能了解一個喜愛品牌的背後秘辛，是一件多麼幸福的事啊，因此十分感謝有個愛馬仕資深愛好者願意寫書來分享這些。

哪裡好買？每個人的「年」配額？

此書也介紹到了包括各個包款的配貨比、入手難度，每人的年配額（甚至把伴侶也列進去我覺得很有趣🤣有個支持自己買包的伴侶真的可遇不可求啊啊），還有什麼區域較能容易入手理想包款啊等等，總之就是作者進入馬場多年以來的經驗談，覺得從別人的經驗中學習，有時候是一個較有效率的學習方法。

小小小心得

如果要問哪個品牌可以不用大打廣告還能獲得大家的青睞且歷久不衰，愛馬仕絕對是名單其一，因為他堅持讓每個技藝精良的工匠，一針一線、不疾不徐的製作出品質優良的包款（我覺得甚至可以稱之為「作品」了），書中也提到一個包可能會做到幾個月以上，讓我看到了他們是把經費灌注在產品上，而不是花大把大把的鈔票在廣告行銷，但實際上產品卻不如廣告上那般美好，「用實力說話」我想用這句來代表愛馬仕營運策略也不為過。

但也因此物以稀為貴，形成了大家不惜配貨就為了拿到一個包的怪現象，但這讓我也深覺，在某種程度上，愛馬仕就像是班上那種個性不是特別熱情，但卻有某種特質吸引別人想去跟他交朋友的那種存在？沒有汲汲營營的想要獲得他人的喜愛，卻總是大受歡迎，就是因為他做好了該做的事。簡單來說這本書不只是一本工具書，更是一本教戰守則吧，總之想要再多了解愛馬仕這個品牌的人很推薦閱讀這本書！

題外話

感謝當初 YouTube 推薦 jun jun 老師的影片給我，讓我能一窺這個高級奢侈品的神秘世界😍 然後 emma 真的超可愛，看得出來是個很有教養的女孩👧 每次出場都被萌到☺️