The Story:

Why is Hermes’ color Orange? After World War II, the company had a shortage of paper. They only had orange craft paper. So when they would wrap their items and gifts they used that orange craft paper. Today, Hermes is internationally associated with the color orange.

Analysis:

The informant works at International Shoppes which is a company that deals with doing Duty Free shops in airports in the Tri-State Area. They carry merchandise from several jewelry designers such as Cartier and Hermes. The informant has worked at International Shoppes for more than Twenty Years, so he has had a lot of experience with the designers that they carry. For work, he has had to go to accessory conventions France and to Hermes Parties in Paris. I assume that it was through one of these events that the informant heard the story of Hermes’s use of the color orange.

The informant thinks that this story is “cool,” and I agree. Hermes is known for their classic orange – it is the color of their boxes, bags. Often times people even go as far as to refer to shades of orange as “Hermes Orange.” It is so fascinating that something, like “Hermes Orange,” which is considered as classy today only has the reputation it does because someone at Hermes in the 1940s had no choice but to make the decision to use the only paper the company had – that orange craft paper.