For the winter season of 2025, Hermès has invited French artist Delphine Dénéréaz to envision the festive window displays for its Shanghai Maison. The installation, named "Aïgo, Flamo e Cacho Fio," draws inspiration from traditional Provençal winter customs, including the Gros Souper, the Cacho Fio, and Epiphany. Dénéréaz translates these rituals through the meticulous use of weaving, collage, and light, creating a rich and tactile landscape that beautifully connects the cultural heritage of southern France with China, the historical birthplace of silk.

Instead of highlighting cultural differences, Dénéréaz approaches this commission as a convergence point rooted in textile history. She explains that "Provence and China share a deep textile history; here, they don't clash as foreign realms, but rather unite through universal family traditions." The artist notes that silk has journeyed between these regions for centuries, and the Shanghai windows serve as a homage to these ancient exchange routes, expressed through materials and artistic gestures. "The conversation unfolds through touch and materials, rather than through mere words," she shares.

Based in Villedieu, Provence, Dénéréaz's studio operates out of a former silkworm mill. Her artistic practice centers on 'lirette,' a medieval weaving technique originating in North Africa and Southern Europe, traditionally employed to repurpose fabric scraps. These discarded fragments are torn, knotted, and reassembled to form dense, vibrant surfaces that blur the lines between tapestry, architecture, and sculptural objects.

Dénéréaz describes lirette as existing "between craft and magic," quickly clarifying that for her, "magic isn't mystical; it stems from transformation." Each strip of fabric carries a past life—a garment, a domestic action, a memory—and the act of weaving breathes new life into these histories. Unlike conventional textile design that seeks control and regularity, lirette embraces serendipity. "It allows me to express a collective memory carried by everyday materials, transforming it into almost talismanic images," she observes.

Drawing inspiration from her village's symbols, such as the belfry, cypress trees, and fountains, Dénéréaz transforms familiar landmarks into woven emblems for the Hermès windows. She elaborates, "These motifs become like amulets, simple forms that offer protection and bring people together." In her work, personal memories evolve into a shared language. "I speak of Villedieu, but I am also speaking of all the places that leave their mark on us and shape our collective memories," the French artist reflects. Color plays a pivotal role in this translation. Even with reclaimed or humble materials, Dénéréaz's palette is intensely bright, featuring saturated reds, electric blues, and neon accents. "Color, for me, is a conduit of energy," she explains. "It conveys atmospheres, sensations, memories—the southern light, celebrations, the vivid contrasts of domestic life." For the artist, color is a tangible representation of time, light, and transformation. "Every shade makes visible what has been experienced," Delphine Dénéréaz adds.

Throughout her broader artistic endeavors, Dénéréaz extends weaving into spatial and architectural forms. Lirette transforms into facades, doorways, altars, or shrines, often mounted on metal grids or wooden frames. "The concept of textile architecture fascinates me," she remarks. "A soft surface is the body's primary dwelling, and I delight in revealing how tapestries, traditionally relegated to interiors, can become walls in their own right." These structures coalesce into what she terms an 'imaginary village,' a network of pathways and sanctuaries where individual memory intertwines with collective mythology.

This dynamic interplay between softness and rigidity, domestic actions and monumental scale, carries a political undertone. By elevating techniques historically associated with home and with women, Dénéréaz challenges the established hierarchies of value in art. "Why are some art forms esteemed while others are not?" she questions. "And how can we restore to ordinary materials the rightful place they deserve in our cultural consciousness?" In her creations, ornamentation becomes a vessel of history, labor, and profound meaning.

At Hermès Maison Shanghai, these profound concerns manifest on an architectural scale. The window displays unfold as a panoramic fresco, meticulously woven thread by thread. An illuminated outdoor installation reimagines the Provençal bell tower with arches of light, crowned by a star and a golden bell. For Dénéréaz, this project holds personal significance; she grew up in a former silk mill, pursued textile design, and recalls creating her first lirette piece from plastic bags collected in China over a decade ago. "I appreciate the idea of a Silk Road journeying in reverse," she muses, an imaginative voyage that brings Provençal symbols back to China, mirroring the historical flow of motifs, materials, and techniques. In this cyclical interplay between past and present, craft and transformation, Delphine Dénéréaz positions weaving as a potent medium capable of conveying memory across diverse geographies, temporal boundaries, and sources of light.