Hermès Craie

Craie is a Hermès off-white: a soft, chalky pale colour rather than a bright white. Product pages listed it for seven lines, including the Evelyne 23, Picotin Lock 18, Plume mini and Constance To Go. In our records the Evelyne 23 appears in Craie far more often than any other model.

What Craie looks like

Craie is an off-white with a muted, chalky finish to the colour. Craie is French for chalk, and the name is a fair description: it is paler than any beige but softer than paper white, with a slight warm or greyish cast depending on the light.

That cast is why Craie is hard to judge on a screen. Next to a pure white it looks noticeably creamier; next to a cream it can look almost grey. The approximate swatch above sits between the two, and warm indoor light can make it look yellower than it is. On hermes.com the colour name on the product page is the only dependable reference, so check that rather than the picture when you compare pale listings.

Craie across leathers

The lines listed in Craie use different leathers, and a pale colour makes the surface easy to see. Hermès describes Epsom as having a small, regular, slightly glossy grain, Taurillon Clemence as semi-matt with a generous, irregular grain, and Swift as almost smooth with a delicate shine.

Grain, shine and smoothness all change how light falls on an off-white, so Craie on one leather is not a perfect match for Craie on another. We do not grade the colour leather by leather. Look at photos of the exact model and leather, and bear in mind the general point that pale leather shows marks sooner than dark leather.

Similar colours

Nata is the closest alternative: another pale colour, but creamier and warmer than Craie. If you want a neutral that shows marks less, Étoupe is the mid-tone grey-brown option, and Gris Pantin moves the same quiet look into grey.

Frequently asked questions