Hermès is keeping us fed with delectable treats, in an enticing Instagram campaign featuring hyper-realist cake art by Giulia Ceccacci Phillips. Phillips is a Paris-based maker of objects, illustrations, and installations, who expertly mimics Hermès accessories such as the Kelly bag, footwear, a glove, and a hat, plus a silvery baume de sellerie (to care for your saddlery leather) as edible pastries…frosted to perfection and filled with sweet deliciousness.
Starting with the Faubourg of Dreams podcasts, which shared the daily routine at their Paris vessel including work on window displays, the hanging garden, and leather workshop, Hermès continues to embrace domesticity with a meta foray into baked goods. In videos featuring a hand model calmly, leisurely slicing each cake with what looks like a butcher knife, the effect is mildly surreal and oddly relaxing…provoking something akin to ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response): the video-induced sedative sensation that begins at the scalp and moves through the body.
If sculptor Claes Oldenburg and Julia Child decided to collaborate on a series of cakes, these confections might be the result. Fittingly conceived in a land where Marie Antoinette allegedly uttered “Let them eat cake”, Hermès’ clever Instagram campaign allows us to (metaphorically) have our cake and eat it too.
Cake Creator | Giulia Ceccacci Phillips