Inside Hermès 'Avec Elle': the brand's Instagrammable, immersive exhibition in Tokyo

In the wake of a downturn of traditional retail in the luxury goods market, big brands are increasingly looking to experiential shopping in order to boost sales. Hermès' Avec Elle exhibition, launched in Tokyo last week, hopes to do just that.

Hermès’ brand equity has undeniable strength; its famed Birkin and Kelly bags still command waiting lists worldwide, while its silk scarves, leather goods and watches are synonymous with understated luxury. The French house’s financial results reflect this: in a climate where many luxury houses are struggling to maintain profitability, Hermès saw a nine per cent increase in revenue in 2017.

The highly sought-after Asian market (excluding Japan) led the charge with a positive swing of 11 per cent. Japan, however, only experienced a four per cent rise, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when Hermès chose to home in on the country’s capital for its next experiential exercise in building brand awareness.

Avec Elle is Hermès’ latest ‘Women's Universe’ event: a collection of interactive, performance-based experiences the brand launched in 2012, in the hope of creating a living, breathing environment which encapsulates the entire Hermès world (not only fashion, but also including fragrance, furniture, and importantly, tone).

Historically, these “worlds” have been one-night-only affairs, for VICs (very important customers), celebrities and “friends of the house”. With a change of tact, the exhibition will run for three weeks, with the target of getting tens of thousands of visitors through the door.

Housed in Tokyo’s National Art Center, Avec Elle encourages attendees to immerse themselves in an cinematic experience based around Hermès' autumn/winter 2018 collection. The exhibition masks itself as a film-set - or a “movie shoot experience” - envisioned by Hermès’ Women’s Universe artistic director, Bali Barret, in partnership with French filmmaker Laure Flammarion.

As you wander through sets, backstage spaces and dressing rooms, the house’s products are artfully, and perhaps more importantly, discreetly, placed throughout the exhibition. Products aren’t rammed down your throat; instead it has stayed true to form with its ethos of understated, stealth-wealth.  

The exhibition is, unsurprisingly, built for social media sharing. Its Instagrammable set up has accrued 5,324 Instagram posts to date with the Avec Elle hashtag. And guests are also encouraged to watch each day’s ‘film’ online after visiting, with the hope of spotting their cameo appearance. While some might roll their eyes, it is Hermès’ very successful way of tapping into the phenomenon of celebrity.  

But will experiential and immersive branding experiences such as this ultimately push sales? It seems to be working for other houses: Gucci saw a 48 per cent rise in revenue in the first quarter of this year - partly as a result of a new creative director, but also thanks to numerous immersive experiences including a Gucci cafe and the Gucci Garden which opened in Florence earlier this year.

The Prada Foundation in Milan is swiftly becoming one of the city’s must-visit attractions and both Louis Vuitton and Chanel have pulled off incredibly successful exhibition-experiences in London.

Doug Stephens, author of The Retail Revival: Reimagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism believes there are five key elements to the success of retail experiences: engagement of senses, personalisation, surprise, uniqueness and repetition. Highly considered, detail-oriented and decidedly memorable, Avec Elle offers all of these, in a way that only Hermès could.

Hermès Avec Elle exhibit runs until July 30 at the National Art Center, Tokyo; nact.jp