Hermès dressed the Smart fortwo issuing a special edition of the diminutive city car. The interior is made of high-quality leather and special canvas called Toile H.

Two unique textures cover everything from the seats to the car’s tridion safety cell. For the inside, you can choose the Hermes signature orange or nine others colors including indigo, gold, lime and pink. There’s also a nice standard umbrella.

High fashion never comes cheap, and the Hermes Smart is no exception coming in at $48,500 in U.S. dollars or 38,000 euros.

This funny short film shows the variety of colors and combinations, provided for the Hermes car model, with this little fashionista Smart that goes through cartoon roads.

Hermès silk jersey fluid scarf is a fantastic accessory. Its size and versatility means you can wear it as a foulard or a beach wrap, around your neck, over a coat or jacket or around your handbag, as a bikini top or around your waist. The possibilities are endless.

The character of Miranda Priestly, in the famous novel “The Devil Wears Prada”, wears a new white Hermès scarf in a different way every day.

Grace Kelly used her scarf as a sling for her broken arm. Madonna wore one as a halter in “Swept Away”. Every woman wants this chic of jersey or silk with its fabulous colors and unique print.

Hermes is one of the few international luxury labels to have furniture. In 1987, it introduced the Pippa chair in pear wood.

The chair was created by the architect and designer Rena Dumas, the wife of the Hermes chairman Jean-Louis Dumas. The Pippa collection has since evolved into a line of foldable indoor and outdoor furniture.

Recently, Hermes has come out with an ultra-luxe update on its classic Pippa folding chair, finished in the world’s finest matte black crocodile skin.

Giorgio Armani explored a merger with French luxury group Hermes but without success, the Italian designer told Bloomberg, adding he planned to keep control of his fashion empire as long as he stays healthy.

Mr. Armani, who is in his 70s and one of Milan’s long-established names, was quoted in an interview with the news agency as saying a merger with Hermes would have united the companies’ strengths in clothes and accessories.

“(A deal) could have been something fantastic,” Mr. Armani said in the interview published on Friday. “Hermes has such class, such prestige.”

The other day we told you about Karl Lagerfeld’s bespoke trunk from Louis Vuitton. In the same vein, we now present Eric Clapton’s ultra-luxurious, custom-made crocodile guitar case from Hermès.

Clapton’s case was specially made to hold his Martin 00028 EC acoustic guitar, the rock star’s signature model (“EC” are his initials) which he helped to design.

Handmade using the world’s finest crocodile skin, poplar wood from Pennsylvania and a very fine, soft blue velvet lining, you will make your musician’s holiday dreams come true for just $100,000. (Via Luxist)

A new book out by author Dana Thomas, called Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Lustre, explores how the manufacture of luxury goods, and in particular luxury clothing, has been outsourced almost in its entirety to a handful of developing countries such as China and Turkey.

Dana Thomas knew it was time to investigate ‘luxury’ when her clothes started falling off. ‘In 2002, I bought a pair of cotton-poplin cropped trousers at Prada for $500. I put them on, and the gentle passing of my foot ripped the hem out. I put my hand in the pocket and it tore away from its seam. I squatted down to pick up my two-year-old and the derrière split open. I hadn’t had those trousers on 10 minutes and they were literally falling apart at the seams. I mentioned this to a former Prada design assistant. “It’s the thread,” he told me. “It’s cheaper and breaks easily.” Of course, not all Prada goods are shoddy . ..’

Thomas explains that despite the protestations of certain luxury house owners, the competitive landscape for luxury goods companies is one which makes this phenomenon hard to resist.

For the last sixty years, the actual production of luxury goods themselves has become much like any other type of product. The big difference is the way in which these luxury goods have been marketed to make you feel a particular way.

How? By creating a desire so powerful that, as Tom Ford, the designer and marketing genius behind Gucci, puts it, “It’s like you’ve gotta have it or you’ll die.”

As Thomas notes in her book, the lion’s share of a product is made in China but then a small piece (a piece of stitching or pocket, for instance) is added in the West so that the ubiquitous ‘Made in China’ label can be avoided and the luxury illusion can be maintained…

The book isn’t especially well written or well edited but Dana has a wicked sense of humor and pulls no punches in describing the decadent denizens of the “Deluxe” world.
Even if you know nothing about fashion, this book will fascinate, educate and entertain. The section on Louis Vuitton is eye-opening. The chapter on the making of a Hermes bag is priceless. Also, in the last few pages of the book, Thomas describes what the truly rich now buy, which is basically what you can see everyday on Luxuo :)

DELUXE: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre by Dana Thomas
Allen Lane £20/$40 pp376