All aboard the Faubourg Express: A whimsical night of luxury
One Ayala isn’t quite a train station, but it made for a fitting stand-in for one, for Hermès’ annual soirée held Thursday night. Themed “Faubourg Express”—a nod to the French luxury house’s flagship store in Paris and its home since 1880, on rue du Faubourg de Saint-Honoré—the event was an invitation to a high-flying journey on a fantastical locomotive to experience the rarefied world of Hermès through a fusion of art, cuisine, and design.
Well-heeled guests arrived at the bustling venue amid the cacophony of noises—the rumble of engines, the screech of brakes, and the constant chatter of the city’s denizens rushing about—and onto the quieter fifth level of One Ayala, which was transformed to mimic a train station, decked out with ersatz trunks and luggage. A uniformed attendant punched the guests’ 1920s-style tickets, before they were ushered to their carriage, er, seats.
The main venue was instantly transportive to a bygone era of travel, the entire space shrouded in handpainted red curtains from ceiling down to the plush red-carpeted floors, evocative of old-world opulence. Think the Orient Express.
The train “windows” featured references to the history of Hermès’ and of dreamy landscapes—a homage to the romance of travel and the house’s elegance.
At the center sat the long, uninterrupted sinuous dining table, mimicking a railway track, laid out with red velvet chairs for the 160 guests, welcomed by Anton T. Huang, CEO and president of SSI Group Inc.; Mario Katigbak, SVP; and Stephanie Chong, Hermès Manila general manager.
Dinner was a beautifully choreographed affair, punctuated by the booming voice of an unseen train conductor barking announcements, with characters dancing and performing like a train orchestra.
Food was a mix of East and West, arriving in stacked bento boxes carved with the likeness of the rue du Faubourg de Saint-Honoré store. The dessert was a replica of the famed rooftop garden of the Paris shop, featuring a mix of little sweets on a bed of edible “moss”; at the center was a chocolate tree.
Hermès Manila’s year-end events are legendary. Last year alone, it transformed Lakehall in Laguna into a barn for its “Pony Dance”-themed party. It has had a long history of successfully staging such affairs, such that Manila is the first market in the world to be tasked to hold the “Faubourg Express.” Lifestyle learned that principals from Europe and the Middle East were present to observe.
