Hermès Aspen window features work of artist Raul De Lara, among the Dreamers
Agaton Strom/Courtesy photo
Artist Raul De Lara first learned that French luxury house Hermès of Paris was aware of his work from a surprise email, followed by a mysterious visit to his studio in Brooklyn, New York.
“When I got the email, I was definitely like, What the hell?” he said with a laugh. “The first time I had a conversation with them, they were asking for a studio visit. Once I met them, I asked, ‘How did you find me? Why are you here? Is this real?'”
They’d seen his work at a fair in Switzerland and had him on a short list of artists they were scouting.
“I didn’t know anything else, but that was an amazing compliment,” he said.
Unbeknownst to him, the Hermès team was interested in commissioning him to create the window display for their new boutique in Aspen, which opened in mid-June.
“Hermès really resonated with my personal values around hand tools and handiwork because everything that you see in the window is handmade by me at the studio with all hand tools,” he said. “I don’t use computers or any like fabrication processes; everything is handmade, so they really appreciated that.”
There has been a lot of hype and massive growth around the French luxury house over the past decade, so it’s no surprise their newest boutique landed in Aspen.
“We have a very selective store network,” said Diane Mahady, president of Hermès of Paris. “We’re very deliberate when we pick a location. We love this location, and the inspiration for the store was all built on the local geography, the local market.”
According Mahady, the boutique in the Benton Building at 521 E. Hyman Ave. is the smallest of its 300 worldwide (34th in the United States) but doesn’t compromise on offerings.
Like all Hermès stores, the Aspen location offers all 16 métiers, including leather goods, home, silks, beauty, jewelry, ready-to-wear, and equestrian.
“What’s really fun is that every single store in the world has a different assortment,” she said. “Yes, even Aspen. Every product that is in the store was selected specifically for Aspen. So we’re excited to see how that’s going to resonate with the local client.”
Fashion lovers and collectors know that Hermès is unique among its peers for still being a majority-owned family business and sticking to its traditional business model, which “rejects mass production, assembly lines, and mechanizations.” Its goods are almost entirely made by hand in France, and the company claims most are made by only one person to ensure the quality of the product.
Beyond the bags, Hermès has a long history of iconic window displays in its worldwide boutiques. Originally, the creation of late Tunisian fashion designer and window dresser Leïla Menchari’s, who was appointed to the maison’s decoration team in 1961, bold and fantastical windows of Hermès’ Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré flagship from 1978 to 2013 took on a life of their own.
So given the brand’s history and commitment to craftsmanship, it’s no surprise they would choose to work with an artist like De Lara, known for his craftmanship of handmade objects, for the Aspen boutique’s window.
“We chose Mexican-born and Brooklyn-based artist Raul De Lara to create our irresistibly eye-catching windows. Raul’s quirky sculptures, which he exquisitely crafts by hand from wood, conjure an astonishing Western landscape. His objects merge Hermès’ equestrian heritage with a Wild West lore that defines Colorado spirit,” said Mahady.
Each year, the brand chooses a theme and commissions artists around the world to conceptualize the storefronts. Continuing the tradition, this year’s theme is “Astonishment.”
De Lara’s interpretation of that theme is what is on display in Aspen.
“I wanted to make a high-end, visually-attractive stable, where this cactus rocking horse lives,” he said. “And I wanted to create this landscape using the tools like that you would see in a nice stable, like the shovel, pitchfork, and the broom, but in a more whimsical, magical way that goes directly with my work. The main character in the windows is the rocking horse, and I used a Hermès saddle, and it’s got a real horse tail on the back of it.”
The cactus motif, which he noted is on the Mexican flag, is a nod to his cultural identity.
Born in North Central Mexico, De Lara is the son of an architect and interior designer who encouraged him to take up woodworking at a young age.
“My parents had a wood shop, and that was kind of like their free day care to just put us there,” he said. So I started picking up materials and material sensibilities. There were always conversations around how things are connected or made or such and such. So for me, that stuck.”
When he was 12, his parents made a decision that would set him on an entirely new life path.
“I should tell you we immigrated here on a whim,” he said. “One day, my dad came home, and he was like, ‘Hey, we’re leaving the country tomorrow morning.’ So that was difficult for everybody. I had zero English words in my head, and we just showed up in August, and I had to enroll in school, so it was a super sudden change. And since we didn’t come here legally, once our (tourist) visas expired, I was here undocumented. And for almost a decade I was just working construction here and there. My dad’s career shifted to construction work and remodeling instead of architecture proper. And it was tough. But I was still making art.”
Eventually De Lara applied and became eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the U.S. immigration policy that protects some individuals who were brought to the country as children from deportation and become eligible for work permits.
This status has allowed him to remain in the United States, attend college and work, but this also means that he cannot leave the country and has not since he was 12 years old. This fact became especially poignant when he was chosen to participate in an exhibition in Mexico as the only Mexican-born artist but was unable to attend in person.
“I have not been able to go my family’s funerals. I have not been able to go to the weddings, to travel for anything,” he said. “I want to talk about it and make it known because I have everything to lose.”
He said he wanted to be open about his DACA status and not hide it, so others like him who hear his story will not be afraid to come out of the shadows and work together to find a path toward citizenship.
In the meantime, he said, having the opportunity to work with the high-profile brand has given him opportunities he had once only hoped for.
“I’m still absorbing what happened,” he said. “There are not a lot of people my age and my situation who get to do something like this. I think it’s exciting to share the darker part of my background to show that it is something that can happen to people like us. And even as kids of immigrants in this situation, we have things to look forward to.”
