When I first started writing these posts about my Hermès scarves, I chose the title “Scarf of the Moment” to kind of echo the standard “Outfit of the Day” or “Scarf of the Day” articles that are so common on blogs and Instagram. In actual fact, this scarf, Sweet Dreams, really has become my Scarf of the Moment, particularly this week, with such horrible cold and wet weather. I have been snuggling down with the scarf for comfort as it is getting softer with each wear.

I have never bought a scarf from any men’s collection before, but when I saw the modelling photos being shared on The Purse Forum, I fell for Sweet Dreams immediately! Designed by Jan Bajtlik for Hermès Spring/Summer 2019 men’s season, it has been such a hit with women.

Description

I was first attracted to the scarf by the amusing and whimsical design. Twelve monsters from your darkest dreams are depicted in boxes. Or are they so terrible? Perhaps they are friendly creatures and only appear to be terrifying. Maybe they are more like the monsters in Maurice Sendak’s famous picture book Where the Wild Things Are? Or the animals from medieval bestiaries?

The design is one of colour tones, texture and pattern. When my colourway, #13, is tied the changing patterns come to the fore, with the gorgeous shades of blue, white and grey blending and curling around the scarf. Other colourways are more muted, or even brighter still with each variation giving a very different experience to the wearer.

Colourway #13 (bleu azur/ciel/gris), has many shades and tones of blue, a pale grey, a darker brownish grey and some white, with a pale blue rolled hem. The overall effect is more vibrant than in the image above. The scarf is 100x100cm and the material is a blend, 70% wool and 30% silk, in a fine weave which gives an almost weightless feel. When new, the fabric is quite firm but not harsh on the skin, and it is softening quite noticeably.

Colourways

These are the colourways for the Spring/Summer 2019 wool/silk 100cm:

Giant cashmere/silk triangles were offered during the Autumn/Winter 2022 season:

Design story

There doesn’t appear to be a design story for the men’s scarves on the Hermès website. I have, however, found a comment by the designer, Jan Bajtlik, on his own website (link at the bottom of this post):

“Sweet dreams” my first men’s Hermès “carré” scarf Spring/Summer 2019, 100×100 cm, wool and silk, available in 5 colour versions. The scarf is inspired by medieval bestiaries. It’s playing with archetype and our perception on the beasts and monsters in graphic and colourful way. I drew this project with fluorescent markers. Mixed transparent colours are visible on the scarf printed in silkscreen.

Details

Here are some closeups of my scarf in a slideshow format:

How I wear the scarf

I have only made three Outfit of the Day collages for this scarf, so far, but will add more as I continue to wear it. The scarf was purchased to wear with my clothes in navy and other shades of blue and also my developing collection of grey pieces. I am really happy with the way it looks with my accessories too, particularly my bluette pompei Midi-Muse handbag from Massaccesi (see image below).

Scarf ties

These are a few quick ties that I made to show the versatility of the scarf. As the texture of the scarf is so different to the silk twill 90cm carrés and also due to the nature of the design, I feel that casual knots are more in keeping.

Clockwise, starting on the left: cowboy knot, criss-cross knot, asymmetric wrap, scarf folded into a triangle and tied around neck using a scarf ring, similar to previous but scarf more loosely tied, unknown name for knot but tied using a MaiTai scarf ring!

Background information

As this is a very new scarf design, there is very little written about it. There are, however, lots of modelling photos of the different colourways in this thread on The Purse Forum:

Hermès Spring/Summer ‘19 Scarves

This is the designer, Jan Bajtlik’s, own site:

Jan Bajtlik

As Bajtlik himself says that he had medieval bestiaries in mind when he designed the scarf, this Wikipedia article may be worth exploring:

Bestiary

If you are interested in Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak you could look at this Wikipedia article:

Where the Wild Things Are

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I hope readers have found this exploration of Sweet Dreams both interesting and useful. Once again, if you find any errors or have any additional information that I could add, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,

💙💜❤️💛💚🧡

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Edited:

• 16/11/20 to add new Outfit of the Day collage.