Since its debut in 1988, the Avalon blanket from Hermès has been the Birkin bag of home goods—it’s an interiors accouterment for too many celebrities and designers to list. “Customers who choose the blanket have become addicts to its particularly soft and wearable materials,” says Florence Lafarge, creative director of Hermès home textiles. A departure from the traditional wool-blend jacquard made mostly in Scotland, Avalon’s newest iteration is 100 percent Mongolian cashmere handmade in Nepal. But the blanket, which measures just over four by five feet, is no delicate cashmere throw.
Instead, it maintains the serious heft of its predecessors and features the brand’s unique “horse stitch” edge for extra durability. Then there’s the fine detail in how it’s made: First, the hand-spun cashmere is woven in a Kathmandu workshop. Then the vivid colors are produced by a three-step “super dyeing” process. The textile is completely submerged in one color and then given two deeper colorings along the sides. After the first dip, wooden H-shaped pieces are nailed in to block the next colors, creating a relief of the signature Hermès logo. The contemporary touch of dazzling tones isn’t jarring but exerts the French brand’s cunning for timeless quiet strength. $4,725; 800-441-4488; usa.hermes.com.
