The story behind

In 2020, to celebrate the reopening of the Hermès store in Milan, Gianpaolo Pagni designed the "Hermès in vista" ("Hermès in view") billboard campaign. It represented the Milan store's shopfront carried by a boat, surrounded by waves. When looking for inspiration, Gianpaolo Pagni also experimented with a horse's head in the middle of waves. It was then that he had a lightbulb moment when he discovered, in parallel, the existence of a popular attraction in the United States from the end of the 1880s to the 1970s: "the diving horse". As the name suggests, it involved having the animal, with or without a rider, dive into a pool from a height of up to 18 meters. Drawing inspiration from the realm of the absurd and fantasy, the Italian artist crafted a change tray featuring a majestic horse standing proudly amidst the waves.