Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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Dior handbag reaction, whether you're doing something right or wrong. Usually you hear much more about the wrong than the right, but it doesn't matter. It's information that is thrown out there by the thousands, which before, you had no way of knowing. It becomes an important element of how we respond to our clients. BC: When we survey customers after a shopping experi- ence in our stores, one thing that's always consistent, and I'm always amazed that it doesn't change, is how they're hungry for more of the story. When you say, "What would have made your experience better?," it's always that they want to know more of the story. The story of the brand, or Coco Chanel, or that handbag.... Today brands are global, but how do you market to your customers differently from city to city? How does the product mix differ from store to store? PB: I think it's a matter of lifestyle, so yes, we do merchan- dise the stores very differently. For example, in Miami, they like a lot more color. VO: Believe it or not, we sell more shearling coats in South Beach than we do in New York City. So you have to be ready for surprises like that in every market. BC: We all just have one brand collection, so we don't cre- ate specifi c things for other markets, but we might tailor our assortments for them. But I have to say, if there's something that's really hot and key on the runway, it's hot everywhere, everybody wants it. So if it's very heavyweight and you're in California, you still have to have it. HB: Jewelry moves much more slowly than fashion; we don't have six collections a year. The trends in jewelry go from decade to decade. When you acquire a piece of high jewelry, there has to be a perennial aspect to it, that it's going to work for years and eventually become a family heirloom. Having said that, yes, you sell much more conservative, understated jewelry in Chicago. The Beats by Dre items are fun in Vegas. You'll sell more colorful jewelry in Florida than you do in other places. MZ: In Miami, where there's a more Latin infl uence, there are other aspects that depend on lifestyle. The Latin culture is much more about weddings. What are your thoughts about the Boston market? How is it growing for you? BC: We've been in Boston a very long time. We moved from a tiny jewel box of a store to one just across the street, and the reaction… you would have thought that people had never seen a piece of Chanel before. When they walked into this new building and this incredibly beautiful and large store, they thought everything was totally different. It was just such a breath of fresh air. By coincidence, the Gardner Museum was having an exhibition by one of the artists that we commissioned to do artwork in our store, so there was this incredible connection that made a very loyal market even more loyal. How has corporate sustainability factored into the marketing of your brand? HB: It's part of our DNA and part of what we do. The jew- elry industry in particular has been, should we say, targeted more than others. It forced the industry in general and then the individual companies to send out the message that this isn't the way we do things. PB: Younger generations, and particularly the millenni- als, are very interested in sustainable practices and ask a lot of questions about where you're sourcing materials or how you're producing. All our companies that have been around for 50 to 100 years need to have responsibility, cred- from LEF brands. But it's the students in the Master Class—who each work on a design and marketing case study prepared by a luxury firm—who may see their efforts make it to the mar- ketplace. This year, for instance, participants involved in a Lalique case study repurposed the iconic Mossi vase design for a shot glass. Other groups created My Travel Games—a game carrier for Loro Piana's gift collection—or responded to Van Cleef & Arpels's chal- lenge to produce jewelry pieces with a spring theme. Ketty Pucci-Sisti Maisonrouge, president of LEF, notes that the Master Class "allows students to experience why a true col- laboration between design and business is the basis for success in the luxury indus- try." Some of the results are so spot-on, they're picked up by the firms. One LEF team transferred Hermès's Balcon du Guadalquivir porcelain pattern to an enamel bracelet ( BELOW). Today it is an Hermès best seller. —Suzanne Charlé FROM LEFT: Barguirdjian, Cirkva, Ottomanelli, Baxter, and Zouhairi. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA DEMIDOVA (HERMÈS) 108 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM