Hermes Dans les Bras de Selene Scarf 90 100% Silk H004284S 07

There is a particular blue-grey light just after sunset, the hour the French call entre chien et loup, between dog and wolf, and Dans les Bras de Selene feels painted for it. Edouard Baribeaud and Sophia Andreotti’s drawing wraps Selene, the moon, in a tableau of night and dream, and it is the scarf I choose when the evening has plans. The title means, roughly, in the arms of Selene, and the drawing earns the poetry.

Over a dark dress or a black jacket it glows without shouting. The composition has enough large shapes to read from across a room, and enough fine work to reward the person sitting next to you. I usually fold it wide and let the moon motif sit at the centre of the chest, then pin nothing and let gravity hold the arrangement. Silk twill obliges; it is stable in a wide fold, unlike softer weaves that collapse into the second hour, which suits evenings that start early and end late.

Format and making: 88.5 cm square, 100% silk, edges rolled and stitched by hand, made in France. The hand-rolled hem means exact dimensions vary marginally from piece to piece. Between wears it rests flat in a drawer, moon side up.

Worth knowing before you fall for it: a central, anchor-figure composition can be hidden by careless knotting. Practise once in front of a mirror to learn where the moon falls, and this scarf will never look accidental again. Learn the fold, though, and it becomes the most reliable evening scarf I own.