Jean-Louis Dumas, Chief of Hermès, Dies at 72

Jean-Louis Dumas, who revived the flagging fortunes of Hermès in the late 1970s and in his nearly 30 years as the company’s chief executive transformed it into one of the world’s most successful luxury brands, died Saturday at his home in Paris. He was 72.

A company spokeswoman, confirming the death, provided no details on the cause, but Mr. Dumas had had Parkinson’s disease for several years.

Mr. Dumas assumed leadership of Hermès in 1978, at a low point in the company’s fortunes. Founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès as a harness maker, it had diversified to include clothing, jewelry and accessories by the 1920s. Although its Kelly bags and signature square scarves were fashion must-haves, the company was languishing, hobbled by its fusty image.

With a free, sometimes audacious hand, Mr. Dumas began shaking things up. He hired exciting new designers, extended the company’s lines, expanded internationally and invested in companies like the glassware maker Saint-Louis, the tableware company Puiforcat and the fashion house of Jean Paul Gaultier.

In a characteristic bit of opportunism, he turned a chance encounter with the English actress Jane Birkin into one of Hermès’s biggest successes. Seated next to Ms. Birkin on a Paris-to-London flight in 1984, he began asking her about her tattered straw handbag and then invited her to work with Hermès to develop a new handbag design.