I simply love this playful design by the masterful Loïc Dubigeon. Designed and first introduced in 1984, it quickly became a favorite like so many of the French artist’s other scarf creations. With over 20 scarf designs to his name, Dubigeon is responsible for some of the most recognizable designs we now immediately associate with the Parisian Fashion.
Among his designs are such old favorites like the Voyages en Russie from 1984, Voltaire (Sanssoucy) (1994), Entente Cordiale Château d’Eu 1843 (1994) [Link to Blog Post about this design], Sextants (1981), Salzburg [Link to Blog Post about this design](1996), La Ronde des Heures (2000), New Orleans Creole Jazz (1996) and of course Hello Dolly (1990). But then I mustn’t forget possibly his most famous, Fantaisies Indiennes from 1987.
Back to his Folies du Ciel carre. I don’t know about you, but for me hot air balloons have captured my imagination since I first read Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. (also the inspiration for a famous and quite rare Hermes carre)
Unhindered by my rudimentary reading skills and the nagging “need” to play outside, I somehow floated across Monsieur Verne’s pages and before I knew it, I had turned the last page.
So it is the case with the Folies de Ciel Hermes scarf. As my eyes frantically dart from one fantastical air ship to the next, disappointed, I quickly find myself having covered the entire 1,296 square inches of Dubigeon’s Madness in the Sky.
Whether imagined or real, the airships in the Folies du Ciel Hermes scarf create a timeless accessory that is both sophisticated and playful.
Just as the night sky changes from navy to black so does the background transition from navy to black. The border on the other hand does exactly the opposite, going from navy to black.
And with that the the artist forever blurs the lines between reality and imagination.
If you are curious about specific dates and would like to delve deeper into the history of hot air ballooning, I recommend this fascinating article on the Balloon Revolution [Link to article].
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