Interview with the CEO of Chaumet, Jean-Marc Mansvelt
CEO of Chaumet, Jean-Marc Mansvelt, spoke on balancing the past and the present of this prestigious brand with the rich heritage of 240-years.
What kind of woman today does the Joséphine collection appeal to?
First, it’s about a woman with a particular character. Because when you choose to wear a tiara on your finger, you’re choosing distinction, a character choice. You’re sending a message to say you’re not like everyone else, and you have a specific strength and a certain personality. But also a sense of virtuosity, grace, and beauty because it’s not for women who want to be too provocative.
It’s a way to set your personality. And then, of course, there are two primary reasons to become a client of Joséphine. On one side, it remains one of the favorite pieces chosen for bridal purposes. It’s connected to the initial history of Chaumet, the history of the power and love between Napoleon and Joséphine. And Napoleon is known everywhere. That’s incredible. There’s another type of client on the other side of the connection with the pearls, the colored stones, something a bit easier and more accessible.
In 2021,?Chaumet’s creations?also incorporated sleeker and more modern takes on the tiara. Can you tell us a bit about the new high jewelry?
After many creations that were a bit more tiara-like, a bit more decorative, more visible, and more baroque in a certain way, we wanted to enrich the collection with new ways to mix and match and to go for designs that were slicker, with a more minimalist approach, because that’s also the style of today. We feel that clients today are a little more understated, and we can create beauty through a fine line rather than an accumulation. So one of our high- jewelry pieces, a V with a stone in suspension, doesn’t shout about its design. It’s all about balance.
This year is the 10th anniversary of the Joséphine collection…
But we don’t mark it that way for two reasons. I always feel that if you start doing anniversaries for everything, then in the end, what’s the meaning in it? In 2020, when we did the 240 years of Chaumet, that was slightly different. For Chaumet, our heritage is much longer than a decade; it’s about centuries. Instead, in 2021 we celebrated our connection with the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon, which is significant in Europe and France. We’ve done an exhibition at 12 Place Vend?me that was open to the public, which tells the love story of Napoleon and Josephine through 150 different objects, beautiful loans from museums, and private owners.
How do you balance 240 years of heritage behind a brand and stay relevant at the same time?
That’s the obsession every single day. How do we continue the narrative, the link to the story? Since the pandemic, we’ve seen clients choose Chaumet because there’s longevity. And so, it has become a daily obsession of ours to convey this message to our clients through different means, including the digital approach, so we can speak to the needs of our audience today. We also go through the traditional channels and have books and exhibitions. I regularly write down on paper in two columns: on one side, how much do we tell the story of Chaumet, and on the other, how do we take a contemporary approach, either through the narrative or through different tools? I take a step back and ask myself, is there a balance? If we’re going too much in one direction, maybe it’s time to rebalance. It’s in everything we do.
* This article is taken from prestigeonline.com.