Three years after opening a pop-up on North 6th Street, Hermes has made it permanent. The maison's 44th US store officially opened its doors on September 19 at 130 Berry Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and it is everything the neighbourhood deserved.
This is not Hermes dropping into Brooklyn with little regard for what was there before. The same warehouse-inspired building housed the pop-up for three years. Diane Mahady, president and CEO of Hermes Americas, said they never wanted to rush the process: the pop-up allowed them to get to know the neighbourhood intimately, meet the community, and ensure they had found the right home.
They found it. The permanent store, designed by Parisian architecture agency RDAI, is a two-level space that takes its cues from Williamsburg's industrial past without pretending it is not a luxury boutique. Five distinct facades face the street, each one spliced into the original brickwork. The building folds around an interior courtyard shaded by an American sweetgum tree.
Inside the store
Raw brick, grey terrazzo, metalwork that nods to the neighbourhood's manufacturing history. A brass medallion set into the terrazzo floor bears the Hermes crest and the address 24 Faubourg Saint-Honore. The ground floor opens into silk, fashion jewellery, shoes, and beauty before arriving at a home collection staged as a sumptuous living room, its walls done up in woven leather straps, baby blue shoelaces, and cotton fibres. Textured glass partitions with blackened steel frames create distinct zones without closing anything off.
A double-height brick mural anchors a staircase that riffs on New York fire escapes, complete with leather-wrapped handrails. Yes, the banister is also dressed in Hermes. Upstairs, a jewellery and watch salon sits between handwoven, earth-toned wall compositions, with ready-to-wear and equestrian goods in the natural light streaming down the hall, and leather goods accented by a rotation of rugs.
The art programme
Hermes is also establishing an artist windows programme at the store, celebrating the work of local Brooklyn artists. The window displays, designed by Antoine Platteau in collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist Christina Zimpel, feature a colourful cast of figurines accompanied by look-alike dogs and a cascade of signature orange boxes. Inside, photography from New Yorker Bill Jacobson and Californian Janet Delaney hangs alongside architectural studies by Philippe Weisbecker from his Structures series on early 20th-century industrial buildings.
What it means for Williamsburg
Hermes did not just open a store in Brooklyn. They learned the neighbourhood first, then built something that belongs there. The pop-up was the test. The permanent store is the commitment. And the artist windows programme signals something specific: this is not a luxury brand parachuting into a creative borough. This is a luxury brand that wants to be part of it.
Williamsburg has been waiting for a store that takes it seriously. Hermes just delivered.