This Scarf of the Moment post is about the pretty Escales Mediterranéenes 90cm silk twill scarf by Christine Henry for Hermès’ Spring/Summer 2003 season. I bought my colourway on eBay in 2015 after seeing it modelled a few times on The Purse Forum and realising that it fitted in to my love of the ancient world so beautifully. It even has a different Greek-style vase on each corner!

Escales Mediterranéenes by Christine Henry for Hermès

I spent quite a lot of time waiting for this particular colourway to come up at a good price. There are two shades of lilac: the darker one is used for the border and the lighter for the background. The colourway also includes shades of green, brown, peach, purple and white. The design includes round portholes looking at typical Mediterranean ports of call with appropriate architecture and artefacts: minarets, Venetian gondolas, Islamic arches, Cretan ceramics and Egyptian scarabs. Plants, sea and land creatures adorn the rest of the scarf with a tiny border of multi-colour fish. There are also phrases and enigmatic symbols placed around the scarf.

There are a few of the colourways online and they do seem to appear quite regularly on eBay and other resellers. I have been unable to find any of the codes for the colourways, but will add them in the future if I come across them when researching.

Escales Mediterranéenes – Hermès

Design story:

Echoes of the deep, heavenly reflections, moon gleams…
The words load the silk with their mystery, as deep as the subterranean depths off Cape Matapan, at the tip of the Peloponnesian peninsula. Here is the ideal cruise for passengers who do not want to leave their cabins. In the port-hole marvels unfold: mosaics from Morocco, Tunisian architecture, Greek amphorae, Italian villages, Turkish minarets the Egyptian scarab. And at the end of the voyage the shimmering Côte d’Azur.

Here are some close-ups of my scarf. Please excuse the folds and creasing – I enjoy wearing it a lot!

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This scarf goes wonderfully with my lilac and purple clothes, particularly this vest and cardigan from Lands’ End, and with my numerous purple accessories!

Escales Mediterranéenes – Hermès – collage #01

The scarf looks lovely tied in numerous ways:

Escales Mediterranéenes – Hermès – collage #02

Clockwise from the top left: basic bias fold, cowl knot, criss-cross knot, asymmetric wrap, half-bow knot, cowboy cowl knot. The horn scarf ring is by MaiTai – see the link in the right-hand sidebar.

Background information

Codex Costinianus
Collection SS2003: Escales Mediterranéenes
A wonderful article about this scarf.

Ticklepie
Hermès Escales Mediterranéenes Scarf becomes 5 new handbags at the Scarf Spa
I am not sure what I think of this – cutting up a Hermès scarf! But the results are amazing.

I do hope that readers have enjoyed this post. As always, I will add more information to any of my Scarf of the Moment posts if I find out anything new in the future. Please feel free to contact me if you see any errors of have more information that I can include. The next Scarf post will be about Annie Faivre’s Mare Nostrum in two weeks time.

Best wishes,

💛💚💜💙❤️