I have been to the Collège des Bernardins in Paris a couple of times. The former Cistercian college is located on the city’s artsy left bank and has become quite a popular event space. You’d immediately be taken by its long nave stretched by magnificent Gothic vaulted arches and columns; then, a few seconds later, you’d realise how the walls have aged with a sort of chaotic uniformity.

The historical monument provided the perfect blank canvas for Hermès to present its latest dinner service. Much like the open floor plan of the Collège des Bernardins, Tressages équestres (“equestrian braiding” in French) is designed with a sense of airy quality marked by strategically placed artwork set against kaolin white porcelain.

“We wanted to carry on the theme of the equestrian world that we have referenced in our previous collection, called Saut Hermès, which was already about the theme but in a different way, in a much more figurative way,” creative director of Hermès Tableware Benoit Pierre Emery tells me. We’re in a backroom of the presentation space, sequestered from the series of scenography conceptualised by French art director Maxime Tetard where individual pieces that make up Tressages équestres are in constant rotating motion.

“We had in mind to do something very delicate and very precise in terms of artwork. And to go in this new direction, we wanted to work with an artist who brings a really strong sense of details, who could express and pay reverence to the craftsmen and the equestrian elements. Working with Virginie was really the best choice we could make because she has this magic hand,” Emery adds.

Virginie Jamin is the creative hand behind Tressages équestres. She is no stranger to Hermès, having first designed a porcelain ashtray for the house in 2004, which then sparked a longtime collaboration that has seen her putting her stamp on throws and almost 30 silk scarves. Emery praises Jamin’s ability to “find the perfect balance between abstraction and figuration, traditional and modernity”.

One look at Tressages équestres and you’d be able to tell the inspiration behind the collection. The dinner service references the passementerie and braiding used in harness-making—something that Hermès certainly knows a great deal about. Jamin’s line-work precisely captures the intricacies of braiding techniques while also highlighting the material that they are set on. The colours used stay true to the natural fibres employed in real-life braiding and are punctuated with bright hues the likes of lemon, mint and petrol blue. Yet, they’re not done heavy-handedly, serving only to accentuate textures and volumes.

Jamin shows me just a sliver of the equestrian paraphernalia like saddles and whips that she discovered at the Emile Hermès Museum and the Conservatoire des Créations Hermès. “There were so many options because every object is functional. And through this functionality, there is some kind of beauty,” Jamin explains. “I wanted to share that because it’s not made to be beautiful but it is beautiful. I wanted to express this in a light way with clear lines and very respectful for the work of the artisan because it’s about artisanal, about drawing, which are very important for the brand, and about the equestrian world in a very abstract way.”

The objects then informed the initial sketches for Tressages équestres. Jamin opted to transmute them into border-like motifs that trace the circumferences of each piece in the dinner service. “The purpose was to be faithful to this first vision, which is very simple and rudimentary, but everything is already there,” Jamin explains. Rudimentary as they may be to her, they’re actually already pretty impressive to begin with, at least, to my untrained eyes.

What is not rudimentary is the process of completing the entire project; Tressages équestres took nearly three years to complete. It’s not that Hermès artisans are not skilled in what they do—clearly, far from it—but rather, a lot of time and effort were put in to ensure that the very best expressions were realised, and as intended.

For starters, the designs had to be manipulated to perfection, and with the dinner service having 27 different pieces including 10 new hollow-ware pieces, there was a lot of trial and error to best fit each of Jamin’s unique designs to the right piece. From the point of reference to scale and proportion to the colours used, every single detail had to be balanced and well thought out to an almost obsessive degree.

“Sometimes, I believe that we are a bit crazy because we are probably the only house that can really spend that much time on a set of details. But details are really important. One of the first elements that we discovered at the Conservatoire des Créations Hermès—I think it’s a very important detail—is hidden under the saddle. It lets the saddle fix to the animal and it gives security to the cavalier. We were fascinated by it because it’s so beautiful, it’s so well-knitted and handcrafted,” chimes Emery. Jamin echoes Emery’s sentiments, likening the entire process as “a balance between playing together but very seriously”.

While it may not be apparent for the unfamiliar, one of Hermès’ tenets is the element of play that’s inherent in a lot of its creations. If it’s not in the personality of a creation, play comes in the form of being able to manipulate a creation to fit your whim and fancy. With Tressages équestres, the idea is that the individual pieces are part of a bigger story realised by you. “This is a sentence, this is another, and you can compose after that, the other story you want. Then, people who buy the service can play with it, so it’s a free playground,” explains Jamin as she points to a select number of pieces stacked on the table in front of us. It would be remiss of me to not point out that the placement of the designs on each piece are so precise that it allows for stacking without obstructing even a line. Like Emery says, “crazy”.

As the creative director, it’s up to Emery to be the catalyst behind each project—finding the right person to help tell the story and expanding the Hermès universe that pays homage to its heritage in a timeless way. Tressages équestres is thoroughly Hermès in every way.

“Each new project is a new dialogue. I’ve known Virginie for a long time so it was easy for this collection,” Emery enthuses. “What I love is having a certain intuition for a project when you go and ask an artist to collaborate on a project. You have a theme in mind but you don’t have a clear idea of what it’s going to look like. That’s the magic. It’s an emotional thing to see it when it’s finished. And to be honest, you never really imagine it would be that beautiful.”