Biography
Pierre Alexis Dumas is the artistic director of Hermès and a member of the founding family that has run the company for six generations.
Dumas joined the Hermès Group in 1992, having graduated from Brown University with a degree in visual arts. Immediately upon starting at the company Dumas joined the creative committee for Saint Louis crystal and Puilforcat silver, both brands within the Hermès group.
After a year, Dumas headed up the group’s operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, a position he would hold for five years before completing the same role in the company’s United Kingdom division. Dumas returned to his creative roots in 2005, becoming creative director of silks in 2002. He continued in the position until he was a named creative director for all of Hermès, following his father’s retirement.
Dumas told WSJ, "My father never told me he wanted me to be creative director," Pierre-Alexis says. "I had to fight for it and prove by the results of my work that I was worth it." Dumas signs off on every Hermès product, and has a natural affinity and love for the company’s iconic scarves.
Dumas believes that, "My job is to keep the strong creativity of Hermès alive. To nourish the rigor and the vision… to make these values vibrate.” He has succeeded in maintaining the company’s exacting standards and preserved the brand’s sense of exclusivity, at a time of unprecedented popularity.
Under Dumas' direction, the storied brand has collaborated with Apple to create special-edition watch products and straps, saying in an interview with South China Morning Post that "I don’t like to oppose the real world to the digital world. We have to learn to integrate both, to think about how the digital world can complement the real experience."
In 2008, Dumas created Fondation d'Entreprise Hermès, which supports art entrepreneurs around the world.