From being known for its understated style, in the recent past, Hermès has become very fashionable, and we’ve had instances like Carla Bruni getting married in a Hermès dress, and the high-profile collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto…. Has this fashion-focused thrust been intentional?
This has not been intentional. We are not a fashion house and not a luxury goods company. We are producers of very special objects, which are of very high quality and created with a great deal of know-how. They offer pleasure and sensuality to those who possess them. Hermès began as a harness and saddle maker in 1837 and over the years, our product range has expanded to include jewellery, silks, tableware and more. A person will go to Hermès to buy a special object, not a look.

How much of this increased visibility has been creative director Jean Paul Gaultier’s influence?
Yes, Jean Paul Gaultier has certainly brought a fashion input into the company, but he hasn’t made it into a fashion house. With this association, Gaultier has gained a new territory of expression which he didn’t have before. But there was something common between him and Hermès – creativity. So he went into the Hermès archives, read the whole story about it and has brought a lot to the party with his creative vision.

It must feel very special, finally launching your India flagship store. Is it a coincidence that this is also the year of the India-inspired collection?
We are very proud that 2008 is the year of Indian fantasies as the theme at Hermès. India has such immense culture and traditions of craftsmanship in jewellery and textiles and creativity. There is a strong Indian fashion sense. The more our people worked on the Indian project, the more they realised that there was a common culture between India and Hermès. Our entire product range will be brought to India each season. I have no doubt that we will make plenty of money, but the real question for me is how fast we can make Indians understand Hermès. I am talking about new customers, those who are not our customers abroad already. How can we talk to people who live here and aspire to high quality objects?

Tell me about your choice of location for this store.
We fixed on Delhi because it is the capital. The world of luxury goods is not standardised yet in India. It is very early and in terms of malls, we don’t know if Emporio is the place to be at or some other. So we took a safe bet to be at the Oberoi and I’m happy with the location.

What took you so long to arrive here, given the long history that you already share with India?
We were thinking of launching in India for more than 10 years. We are late because we took our time to do it properly. We wanted to do it right. We wanted to plant the seeds for the good development of Hermès in India. My predecessor Jean-Louis Dumas was in love with India. He told me, ‘Patrick, your most difficult market will be India’. For him, India was a challenge, a benchmark. I agree with him. It is easy to open stores in some markets, but in India, if we succeed, it will be because we deserve it.

Given the financial turmoil that the world is in right now, do you think that the timing is right?
In fact, I think that it is good timing that we are launching right now. We are in India for the long run. It is the first step of many more steps. We will tighten our links with Indian society then decide on the next store and others. Also, we are not in India only to sell products. We want to enrich the territory of Hermès through creation, creativity and know-how. We would like to develop a creative centre in India, a crafts atelier and we want to tap into the creative brains that exist here.

Some of your global competitors are investing in Indian brands as part of their Indian strategy. Are you also thinking along the same lines?
We are at this moment not actively thinking of financial investments in other brands. We are trying to build links between Indian creativity, craftsman-ship, know-how and our company. If the outcome of this is that we invest in a company then yes, we will but we are not allocating any fixed amount for this.

There’s something unique about the way Hermès is run, with more than 75 per cent of its shares being controlled by the family. Have you found this to be challenging in your decision making processes as a CEO?
My job is not stressful at all, it is a good job. I am the first non-family CEO but I feel a part of the family. This company would never be what it is without the family that owns it. A family ownership is contrary to that of a pension fund. I asked Jean-Louis Dumas to explain his financial strategy to me when we went public in 1993. He said, ‘I want my grandchildren to be proud of me.’ In fact, families are intrinsic to the entire Hermès culture. We have more than 80 designers and at the centre of the life of Hermès are the craftsmen. These include the leather makers, the watchmakers, the silk people...six generations of families who want to do better, not bigger. I think that perhaps financial capitalism should die, and we should go back to traditional capitalism – either family or state owned capitalism.

Your words are relevant given the nature of the world now. I think a few months ago, people might have scoffed, but today, you sound very prescient.
Yes, I believe that money and markets cannot be the rule. If this is the rule, then you go back to the jungle. This is where the Americans were wrong. Freedom of financial markets is a big mistake – these have to be regulated. Who is paying for these mistakes? The world of the poor. I also think that a company is not only about profit. Profit is a reward for a job well done, however the real definition of a generous company or society is exchange. Exchange is one of the most noble activities of humankind.Not giving, but exchange and this is also what India is all about and so you feel you are richer when you leave Hermès or India.

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