Collection FW2010: Cheval de Légende

This design inevitably carries us back to our childhood and the wonderful world and heros' adventures we first heard from our parents, then read ourselves as our curiosity and thirst for discoveries made us come across the books ourselves.

"Cheval de légende" ("Legendary Horse") pays tribute to Pegasus, the horse brought to life by the Greek mythology.  The legend recounts how the Greek hero Perseus cut the Gorgon Medusa's head off, and from the spilling blood Pegasus, a beautiful white winged horse, sprang to life.  Ancient etymology links the name to water and springs: the so-called Hippocrene spring on Mount Helicon marked the spot where Pegasus struck a rock with his hoof.  Its waters were a source of poetic inspiration.

On Mount Olympus, the gods' home, Pegasus was entrusted with the sacred task of carrying Zeus's thunderbolts, until he was tamed by Bellerophon (with the help of Athena, the protectress of heroes, who presented him with a golden bridle).  Bellerophon, the hero charged with slaying the hybrid monster Chimaera by the Lykian king Iobates, slipped the bridle around Pegasus's neck while the horse was drinking, and climbed onto his back.  Thanks to Athena's intervention, Bellerophon was able to slay the Chimaera.  After Bellerophon's death, Pegasus rejoined the gods, and eventually became a constellation.

The reference to the constellation (named Pegasus) is wittily depicted in the design by way of the tiny dots, each sparkling with a magic light, that together depict the front part of a horse about to take off.  As with many other designs, the horse brings so much energy to the scarf and instills in it the admiration that such a noble animal commands.  The overall depiction is sadly lost when the scarf is tied - another testament to how this scarf manages to convey different feelings and moods, depending on how it's displayed.  The apparent "rope", also made up of little stars, adds the element of border (as with a painting) to the design, and renders the scarf more interesting when knotted.  Overall, a very contemporary design best admired for its non-traditional colours (the fuchsia and the green particularly stand out for their unusual hues).

It is also reminding me of the "pearls" design featured as part of the spring/summer collection - which I featured last week.

Meanwhile, so confident was Hermes in the success of this design, that it decided to expriment with it as the dial of the Arceau model.