renowned japanese photographer hiroshi sugimoto has created a limited edition of 140 scarves for hermès as part of the ‘couleurs de l’ombre’
exhibition - with each one a redesign of the famed square scarves known as carrés. the striking gradient aesthetic for each piece was informed
by sugimoto’s interest in the complex prismatic system of polaroid photographs that captures the first rays of sunlight in the morning.

this ten year long investigation generated an impressive spectrum of colors which sugimoto translated to silk for hermès series -
proudly exhibiting hues from brilliant yellows and radiant reds to rich greens and blues. through the project sugimoto broke free
from his well-known heavy color palette, wanting to quash the opinion that there are only seven colors and posing the question -
‘why must science always cut up the whole into little pieces when it identifies specific attributes?’. there is a video documenting
the process here.

artistic director of hermès, pierre-alexis dumas, personally selected 20 of sugimoto’s polaroid images to print for the range which
debuted at museum der kulturen in basel switezerland, the work is currently being shown at la verrière in brussels until the 29th of
september and will be displayed at le forum on the 8th floor of the flagship gallery in ginza tokyo from november 14th
to december 30th, 2012 in tokyo.

(Source: designboom.com)