At Chaumet, Rousing ‘a Sleeping Beauty’

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At Chaumet, Rousing ‘a Sleeping Beauty’

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PARIS — “Chaumet had become a sleeping beauty, a much admired and exquisite jewelry house that had nevertheless quietly slipped under the radar over the years. When I joined the company, it became my task to wake her up again.”

The description came from Jean-Marc Mansvelt, the chief executive of the famed maison owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, as he sat in his office at its resplendent 18th-century headquarters on the Place Vendôme during Couture Week in July.

One floor below, a magnificent jeweled herbarium had blossomed in the gilded showroom salons. La Nature de Chaumet was the house’s first major high jewelry collection since Mr. Mansvelt took the brand’s helm in early 2015 after 10 years as Louis Vuitton’s leather goods marketing director.

“Since the day I arrived, every single employee here has been working towards the moment of this collection’s unveiling. It’s a very important moment for us,” Mr. Mansvelt said. “Because it is not just about celebrating natural beauty, the literal interpretation of the title. It is about showcasing our identity, the style of our craftsmanship and the Chaumet legacy. It is a reflection of the facets that make us who we are.”

The collection had four major motifs — wheat, lily, laurel and oak — and heritage pieces with those themes were found in the house archives to inspire new designs with contemporary twists. Think of a diamond-encrusted oak-leaf ring, brushed-gold earrings in the shape of wheat sheaves that gently sweep along the ear or a between-the-finger ring that looks like a laurel leaf.

Even the tiara was given a 21st-century update, finding form in a flowering headpiece set with two large lilies (both detachable as brooches) forged from red spinels, rhodolite garnets, white diamonds and two pear-shaped tourmalines. Several of the one-of-a-kind pieces had “sold” signs next to them during the press preview — signs that clearly were welcomed by Mr. Mansvelt.

“Between the issues with our economy and string of terror attacks, it is no secret that France has become a tough trading market for everyone in luxury as of late — all of Place Vendôme has been suffering,” he said, adding that retail foot traffic had roughly halved in the first half of this year in the country’s most upmarket and expensive shopping destination.

“But we know and understand the tastes of our client,” he continued. “These are not ostentatious customers looking to do status symbol-driven spending in some flashy, trend-driven house.

“They know what they are buying into when they buy a piece of our jewelry: quiet and refined statements that stand the test of time.”

Chaumet was founded in 1780 by Marie-Étienne Nitot, jeweler to Marie Antoinette, making it one of the world’s oldest jewelry houses. A celebration of its rich history, as well as its dazzling roster of A-list tiara clients — from Empress Joséphine to Edith Wharton, were the driving forces behind Mr. Mansvelt’s decision last fall to introduce the Musée Éphémère, a pop-up museum in the Chaumet headquarters that has since become a permanent fixture.

The French publishing house Assouline also recently released a three-book set exploring the house’s heritage, part of Mr. Mansvelt’s mission to make Chaumet more accessible to its next generation of clients.

But for the time being, there are no plans to increase the 80 stores it has in world capitals or its large network of authorized resellers. “For the moment we are focusing on where we are; we want to do better — and more — in the places we are already established,” Mr. Mansvelt said.

Chaumet has long had a heavy focus in Asia and the Far East, with openings in recent years focused on the Middle East. Significantly, after a botched expansion effort in the 1990s, it has no points of sale in the Americas — although the company says that a sizable proportion of its clients are Americans who spend abroad.

LVMH does not break out profits by company but its Watches and Jewelry group, which includes Chaumet, reported revenue growth of 4 percent in the first half of 2016 over the period in the previous year.

“I am happy with where we are and the trajectory we are taking,” Mr. Mansvelt said. “There are many reasons to be confident.” One positive, he said, is that Chaumet is not exposed in the beleaguered luxury watch market, unlike many of its rivals. Another is that the house is “a brand waiting to be discovered — a position in the sector is ours to win in the long term, rather than to lose in the short term,” he said.

“Furthermore, the fine jewelry market is proving far more robust than most other trend-focused product categories. Our business is not like that of fashion,” he said. “It is about creating enduring art pieces — exquisite investments that will stand the test of time and be handed down from one generation of clients to the next.”

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