Continuing from my last post, I recently found a booklet from the 80’s entitled “How to wear your Hermes scarf”. Apart from the dated photographs of the models, which cause an accident-on-the-highway type reaction…”I can’t look”…”I can’t help myself”…this is an interesting little booklet.

There are instructions for 14 different ways to tie a standard square scarf, most including diagrams. The booklet’s final page also includes the “basic folds”. Quite frankly, I never knew there were this many options. I wear scarves quite often but with the squares I usually limited myself to:

• the Grace Kelly headscarf…prince and exotic lifestyle not included
• the Wild West neckerchief…fold scarf in half (I rhyme!), place around neck tying at the back
• the wealthy gangbanger – fold, wrap around the wrist, and tie
• the ladies-who-lunch handbag accessory, aka the conspicuous consumer…tie, nonchalantly, around one of your handbag’s handles

Now, numerous options have been added…

• the “Sophisticated Lady”…a Joan Collins/Dynasty-esque headwrap
• the “Butterfly”…essentially a huge bow at the neck
• the “Eiffel Tower”…this ends up looking like a men’s kipper tie so I’m not sure where the name comes from

The most wearable style from the booklet, and one that I will definitely try is the “Silk Necklace”. A series of manipulations involving folding and tying the scarf create “beads” in the fabric. The result is then placed around the neck, like a necklace, and tied at the back.

As Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermes says in the introduction, “Ready to begin tying? Let’s go!”