If you visit the Hermès website in search of a scarf or a handbag, you'll be greeted by a collection of whimsical sea creatures swimming across the screen. To navigate to the watch section, you'll click on an image of a watch flanked by an eel. To locate shoes, you'll click on a loafer with a pelican sitting inside it as if it were riding a boat.
Sometimes, Yohana Quiroz would ask her father - a skilled cobbler, who had been studying the craft since he was a child - why he repaired things for customers with such perfection and attention to detail. "This is the customer's favorite bag," Quiroz remembers him saying. "This is the customer's favorite shoe. This is their favorite jacket. I need to fix it."
The Akairo Kozane-Oudoubyou-Hainou Gusoku backpack combines historical Japanese armor aesthetics with modern craftsmanship, resulting in a striking functional accessory that doubles as art.