Checkmate! Hermès added a luxury chess set to its Spring Summer 2012 collection, and it might be the most elegant way to lose a game in style. Here’s the thing about it. Every single piece is cut by hand from Brazilian rosewood and mahogany. No machines doing the work, no shortcuts. The board runs 95cm wide and it’s wrapped in Clemence taurillon leather, which is the same soft, pebbled leather they use on some of their bags. Put it on a coffee table and it looks like furniture, not a toy.
Will anyone actually play on it? Honestly, probably not. Most owners will spend more time polishing it than moving pieces across it. But that’s kind of the point with objects like this. Hermès isn’t selling you a game. They’re selling you something beautiful that happens to have a function.
I keep going back and forth on it. Part of me loves the restraint, the natural materials, the fact that it doesn’t scream for attention. Another part of me can’t stop thinking about the price tag a set like this carries.
What about you? Yay or nay?
[ Hermès / Luxury-insider ]
