HERMES MAN

New Yorkers who've walked past 62nd street and Madison Avenue recently may have noticed that the orange box shrouding the store directly across the street from the Hermès flagship has come down in preparation for tomorrow's grand opening of Hermès Man, the first Hermès dedicated solely to men, as well as a few minutes to chat with men's designer Veronique Nichanian about what men don't know about Hermès, the custom item you can only get here, and the one necessary extravagance a man should get.

How did Hermès decide to open its first men's store in New York?

Well there was always an interest in creating a space where we could house the entire men's collection, just because we would never have room for it all in our regular stores. Customers in New York would say, "I saw something in Japan I can't find here," or "I went to London and saw something that isn't at the store on Madison Avenue." When this space across the street from our flagship became available two years ago we decided it was the right time to dedicate a space just for men.

How would you describe the feel of this store?

I wanted men to be able to come in here and feel like it was their own closet—it's familiar and intimate. We created four small floors, so the shop feels very vertically oriented. The first floor has your accessories, the second floor casualwear, the third floor suiting, and fourth floor is made-to-measure, where you can get a bespoke shirt or suit or jacket in one of our skins. What's also special about the fourth floor is that we do custom knitwear too, so you can bring in anything—say a scrap of fabric you found in your old house—and we can recreate it for you in a knit. We're not doing this anywhere else.

What's your favorite piece in the store?

I love everything so really, I can't choose! There is one thing though that is really special—this custom baseball glove in a deep almost-burgundy red that we're doing in a limited edition for this store's opening. It has an Hermès "H" embossed on it, and there's a limited edition baseball—also with an "H"—that comes with it too.

Right, but that's for display only, right? You wouldn't actually play catch with it.

Of course! Why not?