When the new scarves and shawls for the Hermès Autumn/Winter 2023 season began to emerge online in the summer, I immediately saw one design that I liked. None of the others called to me at all. I loved the playful and cheerful design of Au Royaume d’Helios.
In the end, it took some months before the design appeared in the online shop and I changed my mind a couple of times as to which colourway I preferred. As soon as I saw this one, my mind was made up: Au Royaume d’Helios, designed by Matthieu Cossé, 70cm silk, colourway #06 Bleu Ciel/Jaune/Rose, Ref: H984028S 06.
Description
The design is both cheerful and rather cartoonish. Hermes the messenger god plays in the heavens: dashing around on his winged horse, skipping through the clouds and racing his chariot. These comical scenes are placed around the scarf, surrounded by colourful clouds, stars and planets. An owl, a cat and a bird look on in amazement as the sun, in many forms, watches his antics. Even the moon is amused!
The whole scarf glows with colour. The contrast hem is orange with a pale yellow border to the design. The playful scenes have a light blue background with the different elements in pinks, orange, and yet more blues. Hermes’ clothing makes me laugh! He appears to be wearing a jolly pink and yellow jumpsuit with his fine winged helmet and staff. His horse also stands out in brown and the other animals are in navy or brown. The whole effect is joyous and uplifting.
Colourways
These are the colourways for the Autumn/Winter 2023 silk 70cm scarves. I have added in the codes to help those of you who may wish to purchase a scarf.
Design story
This has been taken from the Hermès website:
Details
Here are some closeups of my scarf in a slideshow format:
How I wear the scarf
This is such a fun scarf , but due to illness I have only managed to wear it once since I purchased it. It looked great with this outfit, but I think it would also be lovely with my other pink or navy clothes and, perhaps, grey? I am not sure!
Scarf ties
I have tried on this scarf in a variety of ways. At the moment, as it is so new, the silk fabric is still quite crisp (although less so than the silk twill of the 90cm scarves), so doesn’t fall easily into soft folds. Anyway, you can get the general idea of how it looks when worn. As this is a smaller scarf, I would be reluctant to choose the more complex scarf knots. This is a fun design, so it calls for more casual ties, in my opinion. Here are a few attempts:
I’m not going to even try to name these scarf ties as they are fairly random. The gold tone scarf ring in the top left image was from MaiTai. I wish she still stocked these.
Background information
This is not the kind of scarf with lots of useful background details, but I have found the following. If I come across any more information, I will add it here…
First, something about the designer, Matthieu Cossé – there isn’t much online that I can find, to be honest:
Laparade: Matthieu Cossé
https://www.laparade.paris/carte-blanche-uk/matthieu-cosse-dw57z-e58sg-b4wsk
A small piece with some of his artwork.
MutualArt: Matthieu Cossé
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Matthieu-Cosse/7CCB545B0C4524F5/Biography
Short biography of the artist.
And now for a few links about the god Hermes…
Greek Mythology.com: Hermes: The Messenger of the Gods
https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Hermes/hermes.html
Lots of information, but beware all of the ads!
History Cooperative: Hermes: Messenger of the Greek Gods
https://historycooperative.org/hermes-greek-messenger-god/
Comprehensive article.
Wikipedia: Hermes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes
Detailed and interesting article.
Oh, and we must not forget Helios too…
Greek Legends and Myths: Helios in Greek Mythology
https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/helios.html
Nice, clear and uncluttered piece.
Greek Myths and Greek Mythology: Helios the Sun God
https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/helios-sun-god/
Useful blog post.
History Cooperative: Helios: The Greek God do the Sun
https://historycooperative.org/helios-greek-sun-god/
Comprehensive article.
I hope readers have found this exploration of Au Royaume d’Helios 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.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
💕💗💖💗💕
The Librain
The Librain......retired 
Beautiful ! Congratulations!
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Thank you for your kind comment. Best wishes, Anne x
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