Hermès Scarf Collection: A Dedicated Collector Shares Her Beloved Finds

Monica Keeley fell in love with Hermès scarves nearly 70 years in the past, and the eagerness hasn’t waned.

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Monica Keeley’s daughter steered that she begin promoting off among the roughly 50 Hermès scarves she had amassed over the earlier 5 a long time. Keeley agreed, they usually arrange a website: amourducarre.com. However the promoting led to some unplanned shopping for, and her assortment has swelled to greater than 160 items.

“I’m obsessed,” she admits from her residence close to Welland, Ont. “Any person advised my husband that I would like a 12-step program. I spend 4 or 5 hours each day researching. Every scarf has a reputation, and every design has a narrative. There’s a cause a shawl is what it’s. And that’s what I like — discovering discrepancies in what individuals are saying a couple of scarf after which discovering out the actual info.”

Keeley’s major sources of intel are a Fb collectors group and a trio of books by Toulouse-based historian, author and collector Geneviève Fontan. Fontan’s Carres d’Artwork is taken into account the bible of Hermès scarves and options photos of just about each piece created since 1937, together with the names of the designs and the designers and scores on rarity and desirability. Scant historic data is on the market from Hermès itself, Keeley states. “It gained’t even authenticate a shawl except you’ve gotten a receipt from an Hermès boutique.”

Her curiosity in Hermès scarves dates again nearly 70 years to when Keeley, now 76, was rising up in Kilrush, an Irish coastal city in County Clare. “All people wore head scarves in Eire in that period,” she says. “I rode horses and began searching once I was 9 or 10 with my dad. Now they’ve helmets, however security was totally different then and we might put on scarves. My father purchased me an orange silk one when he was in London on enterprise, however it wasn’t Hermès. I misplaced it at a hunt in the future and I believed, ‘I’m going to get an Hermès scarf.’ They have been very a lot in vogue in Dublin, however they have been so costly.” She was at college in Dublin within the late ’60s when she met her future husband; for his or her first Christmas collectively, she made certain he knew what was on her want record.

She now not has that present: Le Timbalier, that includes a drummer on horseback by Marie-Françoise Héron. However in a darkish nook of her basement is a rainbow of different silks. Quite than retaining the 90-centimetre squares tucked away in bins, Keeley clips them by one nook to tissue-paper-covered clotheslines in order that they dangle like limp flags. “I spend hours and days down right here,” she laughs. She wields a flashlight as she weaves amongst illustrations of panthers and plumes, carnations and automobiles, dolls and dancers and the horse and bridle motifs that remind her of her childhood. Considered one of Keeley’s favorite artists is Annie Faivre. “She was referred to as ‘little monkey’ when she was rising up, so she hides a monkey in all of her designs. It’s hilarious that individuals spend hours in search of the monkey.”

Keeley immigrated to Canada along with her new husband, who was a household doctor, in 1971, they usually settled in London, Ont. Her husband later grew to become a medical well being officer for the Canadian authorities, and the household — by then they’d two kids — was posted in Rome adopted by New Delhi. “Wherever I went, the very first thing I did was discover the place I may purchase an Hermès scarf,” Keeley recollects. She says she practically missed getting again on a cruise ship in France as a result of she had found a shawl vendor at an open-air market. A few of her more moderen purchases have occurred by means of Fb Market, together with three brand-new designs from a girl from Dubai who had acquired them as marriage ceremony presents.

“I don’t advocate it now — shopping for one thing blind,” Keeley cautions. “You must belief the particular person.” Fakes aren’t solely prevalent but in addition glorious high quality, she says. “I imply, it’s scary.” She repeatedly visits web sites that promote fakes so she is conscious of what could be circulating. She did slip up as soon as by not noticing that the care directions have been positioned incorrectly on a label. Exact traces are one other giveaway. “If there’s the slightest bleeding, it’s not Hermès,” she says.

And whereas she eagerly checks new releases on the Hermès web site, she does favor to buy second-hand for the value financial savings. Though, she factors out, she not too long ago noticed a uncommon design resell for US$1,700.

Keeley additionally takes pleasure in caring for her treasures, and though the label says “dry clear solely,” she swishes them round in tepid water with slightly shampoo or detergent. “Silk is the strongest fibre on the earth, and the double twill that Hermès makes use of is even stronger,” she explains. “That’s why the scarves final 50 or 60 years.” The completion is a spritz of Niagara Premium, a starch spray that offers crispness again to silk. “These are all outdated scarves you’re taking a look at, however they appear like they’re model new.”

Keeley’s daughter remains to be encouraging her to cull her assortment, with combined outcomes. “I swear each time that I’m by no means going to purchase one other scarf, however there’s one proper now referred to as Tulipomanie, which is simply flowers, and it’s performed so superbly,” Keeley says with a sigh.

This text first appeared in FASHION’s Summer season 2024 challenge. Find out more here.