This article is part of our Vogue Business Membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to Member-only reporting and insights, our NFT Tracker, Beauty Trend Tracker and TikTok Trend Tracker, weekly Technology, Beauty and Sustainability Edits and exclusive event invitations, sign up for Membership here.
“Fashion designers don’t think of the jewellery,” says Chopard co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele when we meet for lunch at the brand’s headquarters in Geneva. This, she insists, is a missed opportunity.
Scheufele is gearing up to unveil Chopard’s second couture fashion collection. The first was unveiled last year during the Cannes Film Festival, of which Chopard has been an official partner for 27 years. This time, the ‘Caroline’s Couture’ collection is bigger: 77 silhouettes to mark the 77th edition of the festival, which runs from 14 to 25 May. It will be presented during a show also featuring the maison’s latest high-jewellery offering on 21 May at Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, to 250 guests.
Caroline’s Couture focuses on how necklines can highlight a necklace or earrings, and features patterns that nod to Chopard’s signature jewellery collections: Ice Cube, Happy Hearts or Precious Lace. The new fairy-tale-themed collection features a midnight-blue dress in feathers with a split neckline that can be worn with a tiara; a black smoking jacket paired with a clown-shaped brooch (referencing Scheufele’s debut jewellery design, a happy clown); and a grey bustier gown to wear with diamond earrings.
Couture techniques include embroidery from both China (from the Miao people’s ateliers in Southern China) and India (from the Kalhath Institute in Lucknow), and fabrics conceived with Jakob Schlaepfer, based in St Gallen, Switzerland. There are accessories in the form of six hats in collaboration with milliner Philip Treacy. The show will also include five men’s smoking jackets — created in partnership with luxury tailor Cifonelli to go with the watches — men’s jewellery and cufflinks. Prices span from €5,000 for a blouse to €50,000 for a gown.
There are no plans to introduce Caroline’s Couture to Chopard boutiques, Scheufele says, citing the lack of space. Clients contact the brand directly. Some fittings take place at her own home in Switzerland, some at the Chopard hotel, 1 Place Vendôme; the hotel reopened in September 2023 after six years of renovations, a project in which her nephew Karl-Fritz Scheufele is involved. Fittings can also be in the client’s home or their hotel suite.
Staying small and doing things right
Jewellery brands have expanded to accessories, notably handbags — Bulgari recently tapped Mary Katrantzou as its first-ever creative director of leather goods and accessories — but haven’t taken the plunge into couture, a different and crowded business. Fashion brands, meanwhile, have an edge when it comes to merging the two worlds. Last year, Dior presented its high jewellery on models dressed in designs by women’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, Louis Vuitton’s fine jewellery line had dresses by the Louis Vuitton studio, while Tiffany presented its high jewellery on Givenchy dresses.
As the co-owner of one of the last independent watch and jewellery houses, alongside her brother and co-president Karl-Friedrich, Scheufele has the freedom to venture into new categories. “I’m stepping out of my comfort zone but I have seen colleagues coming from fashion into watches and jewellery, so I said I might as well do the opposite,” she said last year, ahead of the presentation of the first 50-piece collection.
Having seen the reaction to that collection, Scheufele remains confident couture will bring new customers to Chopard. “I still have to make things that can be sold,” she notes. (Scheufele was the force behind the launch of the high jewellery, which, she says, today represents around 15 to 20 per cent of the business.)
Chopard generated sales of €816 million in 2023, according to Morgan Stanley estimates, making it the sixth-largest jewellery brand. In 2023, the brand generated 53 per cent of its sales through watches, 43 per cent through jewellery and 4 per cent through the remainder, which includes handbags, eyewear under licence with De Rigo, and perfumes with licensee Give Back Beauty, per Morgan Stanley. Can the couture business be profitable on its own? “If we stay small and do things right, yes. Stores aren’t necessary for it, so I think it’s a good business,” says Scheufele.
Last year’s collection travelled with the high jewellery. After Cannes, it was presented in Paris, followed by a pop-up with Saks Fifth Avenue in Palm Beach and a pre-Oscars dinner at Chateau Marmont with global brand ambassador Julia Roberts. “We are happy with the first year of business. Now we need to structure more, hire people to take measurements in different cities, find dedicated salespersons, develop a marketing plan, and maybe have a retail partner that’s very specific and an atelier in Paris that’s not a shoe box,” she says.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
More from this author:
Online luxury’s last man standing
