Indian Fantasies: a Hermès scarf between myth, travel and legend
At Carré Society, we love to tell the stories woven by silk. Some pieces are fragments of adventure, art, and spirituality. Indian Fantasies , designed by Loïc Dubigeon in 1985 for Hermès, is a perfect example.
Reissued several times since its creation, this scarf fascinates with the richness of its iconography and the precision of its design. It is available in a classic 90 cm silk twill version, but also in a very rare 140 cm cashmere and silk blend.
A tribute to Rajasthan, land of kings and legends
The design of Indian Fantasies is directly inspired by the frescoes of Rajasthan , the northern Indian region known as the land of kings . The murals of the palaces of Jaipur, Udaipur, and Jodhpur are translated here into silk, with their shimmering colors and heroic figures.
At the center of the square stands the Bodhi tree , under which the Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment. This tree of life symbolizes the Hindu triple deity: Brahma for the roots, Shiva for the trunk, and Vishnu for the branches. It is bordered by peacocks , messengers of immortality, and surrounded by a profusion of scenes inspired by Indian mythology , the great Hindu epics, and local traditions.
At the heart of the composition stands the Bodhi tree, under which Siddhartha Gautama is said to have attained Enlightenment. This tree of life is interpreted here according to a symbolic triad: the roots represent Brahma (the creator), the trunk Shiva (the destroyer), and the branches Vishnu (the protector). Peacocks, with outstretched wings, dance around this sacred tree as allegories of immortality.
Around this cosmic center, the square unfolds a kaleidoscopic fresco. Here we encounter the elephant of Ganesh, god of wisdom, the warrior princes of Mewar, figures of resistance to the Mughal invasions, but also Dhola and Maru—Romeo and Juliet of the sands—fleeing the city of Narwar on camelback. This juxtaposition of motifs, scenes, and figures composes a teeming vision of India, poised between historical reality and erudite reverie.
Dubigeon's genius also lies in his ability to subtly evoke the tensions of the colonial era. A train and an automobile appear on the edges of the canvas—discreet but significant allusions to the British East India Company and its technological legacy. India is simultaneously celebrated in its splendor and observed in its transformations.
A little-known detail: the Indian cosmonaut
In the 1991 Rakesh Sharma special edition, an unexpected detail slipped into the border: the first Indian cosmonaut , who was invited aboard a Soviet flight in 1984. A tiny silhouette, a discreet nod from Loïc Dubigeon to the news of the time, and proof that this scarf knows how to combine history and modernity.
Indian Fantasies is not simply a tribute to the Orient. It is a visual manifesto of a world in dialogue: between the ancestral and the contemporary, art and the sacred, conquest and contemplation.
