The CEO isn’t afraid to howl at the moon.
While she was on a whirlwind three-day trip to New York this fall, we caught up with Boucheron CEO and eternal optimist Hélène Poulit-Duquesne to discuss how she runs a high-jewelry brand with humor, the Boucheron pieces she can’t live without, and the brand’s new LA boutique, which Poulit-Duquesne and her fun-loving coworkers are inaugurating with a big, glamorous party on October 22.
1. I was just looking at the Carte Blanche Impermanence collection; it’s a truly decadent tribute to nature. How long is a collection like this in production?
Between the seed of the collection that we select with [creative director] Claire [Choisne] and the release, it’s three years. The first year is more about concepts. In the second year, we begin to develop. The last year is dedicated to post-production and the creation of assets for the communication team.
It’s like making a film.
Exactly. As you know, we launch two collections a year, on a three-year basis. In fact, we are working simultaneously with six collections. So sometimes it’s like, ‘Are we talking about the collection for July 2027? Ah, voila!’ [Laughs]
2. You’ve talked about how your leadership strategy involves a lot of optimism, and that’s an amazing thing for a CEO to project to her employees, no matter which business you’re in. How do you maintain that level of positivity?
I’m someone who is really positive and optimistic. I always try to see the glass that is half full, not empty. So I think it’s really part of me. And in the way we’re working, I think we’re joyful. When you create this kind of base of common values with the people you’re working with, naturally, we’re full of humor, so we’re really laughing pretty much every day. Now it’s kind of a game rule. We always say we do not take ourselves seriously, but we work seriously. Meaning that we can laugh pretty much all day long, but we are very serious about what we are doing.
Right, you can still execute and have humor.
For me, there’s no opposition. But people who have a big ego are not always very serious about what they are doing, so I prefer to have a low ego. But a good level of execution and stubbornness, because I am stubborn. I know what I want. But in the meantime, I want to have fun.
3. I love reading about your working relationship with Claire, which has been going on for 10 years now. How do you continue to support each other, and how important is that relationship to you?
I think that over the years, trust has grown even bigger from her. At the beginning, I told her that I was going to support her, to back her, to protect her. And now she knows it’s real.
It’s not bullshit. Now we have a level of understanding of each other, which makes the reality of launching a high jewelry collection top of the class. And we have the same taste. Could you believe it if we didn’t have the same taste?! It would be a nightmare.
4. Boucheron just opened a store in L.A., a very sunny place, lots of optimism there. How excited are you to be expanding out west?
I think it’s crucial. For me, the top priorities in the U.S. were New York and LA. And better New York first and LA after, but if I had the opportunity to have LA first, for me, it was the same. You really need to be on the East and West Coasts. LA is a glamorous part of everything red-carpet, it’s Hollywood, it’s a kind of another dream.
5. Will the product designs change or evolve to suit this new West Coast client?
We never accepted creating specialized products for specific categories of people or nationalities because we’re a global company and we support the French touch. The only thing we do when our launch plan is ready is that we have some novelties for all the different nationalities in terms of ergonomics. I give you an example. The Serpent Bohème collection is outperforming in the Middle East, but with the big pieces. At the same time, it’s performing well in Asia, especially in Japan, but with very small ergonomics, like beautiful little rings. So when we have a relaunch of Serpent Bohème, we check that we have the smaller size for Japan, but we have the bigger pieces for the Middle East. But we will not design specific projects for different areas.
6. What excites you most about this expansion between New York and L.A., and just having a foothold in America in general?
I’m very excited. It’s one of the toughest markets when you are a French company, a European company, because you have some big American brands like Tiffany and David Yurman. You’re [going to] face this challenge. So I think it’s a very tough market, but you cannot be a high-luxury brand if you don’t have American clients.
What is reassuring is that we’ve always had a very strong history with American families, such as the Astor and McKay families. The history of the brand is closely tied to the US and Hollywood. We know that in the last 10 years, we’ve been having a lot of American clients but they’re buying in Paris at Place Vendome. So for us, it’s super important to be in the US.
7. What is daunting about launching in the U.S?
The most difficult thing for me when we’re talking about the US is that it’s a multiple-market, it’s like having 10 different countries. It’s very similar to Europe, and we don’t have a strategy for Europe. No, we have a strategy for France, we have a strategy for Switzerland, we have a strategy for Italy, we have a strategy for Spain. In the US, each city is essentially a country in itself. When you go to Las Vegas, when you go to Dallas, you have an ecosystem in each city, which is different.
You have to achieve awareness in these communities that are so different. We were talking today about how we have a team in New York, will need to have a team [in LA]. It’s like if I was opening a boutique in Africa while operating it from France. I mean, it’s very difficult. The population is different. The taste is different. The way people are living is different. So it makes it super complex. So it’s not an easy task to come to the US.
The last time we had the chance to feature you in 10 Mag USA, you described a fun team offsite that involved howling at the moon…
I tracked down my former team members to work with wolves. [Howls]
8. Exactly. I’m wondering if you have organized any similar off-sites for our coworkers since then?
We worked with the head negotiator in France. It’s like the head of the SWAT in the U.S. That guy I knew for years, and the last seminar we did was with him. It’s super interesting because he created the negotiation skill. Roughly 20 years ago, at that time, they were just shooting when there was a hostage situation. And then they discovered that negotiation skills helped manage two-thirds of the intervention globally. It went well without killing and just by negotiation. So I had the guy come for a day to work on negotiation skills and it was very fun because we had to play together. He gave you real scenarios, and you had to negotiate among the different teams and it was super fun.
9. Which Boucheron pieces do you wear every day? Can you wear such high-end jewelry every day?
I’m very surprising because I wear my jewelry every day, even if it costs a lot. If I have a bigger diamond, I’ll wear it on the Metro. I’m not afraid of wearing anything in the daytime. In general, the more casual [pieces] that I wear every day are Quatre. [Shows off her bracelet stack.] I have a grey one, a red one, a black one, so I always have a Quatre. I love stacking. I always have rings, but I don’t wear earrings, and I don’t wear necklaces, except for last night. My gosh, I wore the Question Mark necklace. It was an emerald and ivory Question Mark necklace; it was stunning.
10. You spoke of working three years ahead; can you give a hint of what’s coming up next?
In January, we are launching a high jewelry collection, and the name could be, but it’s not a nice name, Back to the Roots. Meaning that we’re going through that collection to explain the basics, the essence of our style.
