How would you like your children’s portrait done – in oils, large-format photography,or 3D hologram? LUX Editor-at-Large Gauhar Kapparova meets Tamara Beckwith, the London society art dealer who represents Rob Munday, holographic artist extraordinaire

If, as a creator of portraits for global high society, you had to choose two subjects to star in your portfolio, you couldn’t do much better than Karl Lagerfeld and the Queen Elizabeth II.

And that is precisely who is on show, in 3D, downstairs at Tamara Beckwith’s chic The Little Black Gallery in west London. Beckwith, who has transformed from It Girl to charity supremo and art dealer over the past decade, represents Rob Munday, the near-legendary holograph and graphic artist.

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Munday was commissioned by Chanel and AnOther Magazine to create a portrait for a limited-run holographic cover for its 15th anniversary issue. And before that, he had worked with graphic designer-artist Chris Levine to create an official holographic portrait of the Queen.

Other subjects have included Angelina Jolie, musicians Noel and Liam Gallagher, sports presenter and former England football star Gary Lineker, and children’s author Michael Morpurgo.

Now you can have Munday create a holo-portrait of you, your children or anyone else in your life – although not pets. “We are now doing private commissions,” says Beckwith, “and we are getting lots of interest from my friends who are men who have beautiful wives and children.”

 Read next: President of Pace Gallery Marc Glimcher on making art for all

Beckwith is herself a collector of photography. She says she started collecting the likes of Terry O’Neill, Robert Doisneau and Horst P. Horst when she was young and adds that she was taken by Munday’s work because it was portraiture. “I don’t like anything abstract, it leaves me cold. Even if I go around a beautiful exhibition and someone is explaining to me how clever the artist was and how he was the first person to paint something like this, I’m like, really?”

As well as her evident passion for portraiture, Beckwith will also bring her formidable contact book to bear on the project. Munday will not be producing many private commissions –they will be for just the right people. Beckwith, who also runs a society charity event every year in aid of the Gynaecological Cancer Fund, knows exactly who they are.

Rob Munday is represented by The Little Black Gallery, thelittleblackgallery.com

Pace Gallery, under the leadership of owner Marc Glimcher, is one of the leading forces on the global contemporary art scene. With his visionary plans for spectacular multi-media shows, he is taking art into the future. But he is also stepping in to curate art in public areas in parts of America where local government funds are low, a role where the private sector’s responsibility will only expand, he tells Darius Sanai in an exclusive interview

LUX: With current developments in public art, it is felt that private initiatives and galleries, such as yours, are taking on the role of public services.
Marc Glimcher: Absolutely. There is a level of ambition that people have and this is true I think in all sectors. For example, when comparing the art and tech world: academic ambitions have grown so large that they have become private, corporate ambitions. That is quite a well-documented thing now. We see Silicon Valley companies and so forth taking on this role of being consumers of social good as well as entrepreneurs.

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In the art world I think we are seeing the same thing where developers see that a public mission has melded with their commercial vision and purpose. And without that public good the commercial success is not enough, it’s not guaranteed and it’s not balanced, so we find ourselves taking on that role.

LUX: Is there a danger that these become one man or one group’s vision of what public art should be? And is that good or bad?
MG: Well, it always has been. This isn’t purely true but great individual visions have guided great cultural achievements. Committees are not famous for having inspired or patronised or enabled great cultural moments to happen. It is something done with passion by someone who kind of parallels the artists. When a municipal committee get together to decide what the art is going to be on some public site, you don’t get the best result. When someone in that group has a real vision, pushing it as if it were their private vision, that is when amazing things happen. I don’t think there is any history of somebody’s private vision hurting the quality of cultural intervention.

LUX: Can you tell us more about your initiatives. What’s forthcoming, how will it work and how will communities be involved?
MG: It’s very complex. The gallery system was set up to represent an artist and the artist makes their work and the gallery shows it and sells it. The process for these public commissions is much more akin to an architectural process. What do we have coming up? We’ve got 10 projects around the world right now where we are making proposals, the first one being ‘The Illuminated River’. And we have projects in New York and Massachusetts, Australia, London, and China where there are new cities being built every day. I will say that London seems to be at the centre; it’s a fertile place to have those conservations about this idea. That’s where we found Mark Davy, founder of Futurecity, who we are in collaboration with for Future\Pace. We’ve set up a group who can function using the economic model of the architectural world to address an arts project; it’s a very different approach. We are going out to developers and municipals. We are helping to draft a cultural agenda and will be working with our artists and others who are not necessarily gallery artists but who work on a public scale and acting as the planning group to get this job done.

LUX: And is this driven by your desire that more people should be able to see and experience art?
MG: Yes. Our natural driver is the artist and we see among the artists a desire to bring the message out into the world. We take our cue from them so it’s a natural evolution for us to feel excited when we get a chance to have Leo Villareal light all the bridges crossing the River Thames. It’s the same with artist estates. We recently took on the estate of the American sculptor Tony Smith. He is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and one of the most important sculptors aware of public engagement and their experience of space. My father drilled it into my head that this is our family’s contribution to help these artists get their message out and extend human perception. When we got 200,000 people to our teamLab exhibition in Menlo Park, California, it was pretty thrilling.

LUX: What’s it like to take over your father’s business. Is it just a job or something else?
MG: It’s a unique challenge. You have to survive the first 20 years without killing your father and struggling with self-definition. People may deny it but every second-generation person with any kind of ambition has to come to peace with the fact their father created something from scratch, and you’re never going to be that person. So who are you going to be? And what are you going to do? You know you’ve made it when you won’t let your father leave instead of trying to kick him out.

LUX: And I guess your relationships with artists are at the heart of what you do and how you define your relationship with the business?
MG: Absolutely. That’s what we experienced growing up, being surrounded by the artists. It’s a very complex business. There are many different agencies involved – there are the museums, the collectors and the writers. You need to remember what your core is in a complex business and ours is the representation of the artists. If you maintain that there is a way to cross from one generation to the next and to create a real institution.

LUX: What thrills you, what makes you come alive?
MG: For me it’s walking into the artist’s studio and seeing their breakthrough, that spectacular invention that they have created, and knowing you can transmit that out into the world. I will get a call from Tara Donovan, who will have been struggling on a new body of work for a year, and she will say “I’ve got it”. And you can hear in her voice that something has happened. Some transformation took place. And as an art dealer you get in the car and you’re the second person to connect to that creative moment. Or you can get on a plane because Adrian Ghenie called and you arrive in Berlin, go into his really dirty, really dark studio, go around the corner and there is this work that has just been dredged out of the great history of painting. Then everything you do is about bringing it out of the gallery and into the world, to the museums, to the lectures and so on. If that makes you come alive then you are an art dealer.

Read next: Moroccan artist Ghizlan El Glaoui’s unique visions of beauty

LUX: You studied sciences. Does that bring you a different perspective to others in your business?
MG: It might. I definitely think that it has worked well for me. The art gallery is very concerned with historical process, not just the individual process of one individual artist. The rigorous training and analysis that one gets in immunology or biochemistry translates well into trying to understand how the broad sweep of culture works and how artists work.

LUX: And in terms of artists, there must be more competition than ever to find and represent the best artists? Or is that irrelevant because more people are becoming artists?
MG: No. It is very relevant. There is more competition and it is shaping the art world. The galleries are growing. In a market place when the demand is going up at the same time as the competition, you tend to create more consolidated, larger companies to deal with all the various competitive issues. It becomes very expensive to be an art gallery so it’s harder for mid-level galleries. Although, the population of artists is so diverse that there are still artists for every kind of gallery. It’s hard to imagine big galleries replacing the smaller galleries because small galleries are absolutely essential for emerging artists. And there are a lot of artists who don’t want anything to do with the big galleries. In 1975, when you had an artist popular in New York City it meant that if you wanted to keep working with them you had to do a full colour catalogue instead of black and white. Now that same artist, or a comparable artist, is popular in New York, Korea, Europe, China, South America and there are multiple museums competing for shows. There are awards and biannuals and art fairs. It requires an enormous amount. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not about flying artists around in private jets and having expensive parties. It’s about funding the production of work, shipping it all over the world, organising exhibitions, lectures and symposiums and about supporting the museums who have commissioned your artist. We have 17 registrars in charge of handling and moving the art and making sure it gets where it’s supposed to be in perfect condition. That is twice the size of our PR staff, which is big, too.

LUX: Would collectors of these popular artists in 1970s New York have been in the artistic, cultural, media community themselves? And how has that demographic changed since then?
MG: No, that’s a myth. Art patrons haven’t been other artists or writers, although they have always collected artists when they were starting out because they were the ones who knew about them but they always get priced out. In the 70s the collectors were the real estate developers because they were the most entrepreneurial, upwardly mobile group of wealthy people in America, Japan and around the world. They were priced out by an emerging financial class of hedge-fund people who were collecting more aggressively, and they in turn might be displaced by technology people.

LUX: How do you view the debate about the fragmentation of art, that there are no movements in art and no significant artists anymore?
MG: I view it as something that people always say about their time. People are very sceptical, very hard on their own moment in history. We’ve never heard anyone say now is a golden age of great art. Golden ages are always in the past. In the day when those southern California light and space artists were coming out, believe me, people said, “Oh god, this is so desperate, nobody knows how to make great art, they’ve forgotten”. Now we have special effects and digital artists. Great art is always made, it just takes a while to be recognised as such.

Read next: Olympic high jumper and Richard Mille’s newest partner Mutaz Essa Barshim on the importance of timing

LUX: What are the most interesting things going on at the moment at Pace?
MG: We have our art and technology and public art strategy that we have been working on for the last five years and it’s all bearing fruit at this point. More importantly than that, it seems like it is playing a significant role in the global cultural dialogue. That’s always the place we want to be – making significant dialogues. Both art and technology and the way that those groups making art in this way have a certain capacity to work in public spaces. But the nature of the art making also creates natural limits to what the artists can do. There were 20 requests for sky spaces from James Turrell for every one that could be done. New cities get built around the world with new large-scale developments and these groups want to engage in art, they don’t want to engage just with design. So it’s a call to the artists to find a way to work on a bigger scale. It’s driving the creation of art collectives along with the fact that this is a very collaborative age. We are seeing amazing possibilities arise.

LUX: Which artists are really exciting you now?
MG: We are very excited about Tony Smith because people haven’t recognised his greatness. There is a lot of great painting that is being done right now by the likes of Adrian Ghenie and Nigel Cooke. Tara Donovan, who is kind of a post-minimalist artist, her show sold out in a day! We are about to have a Robert Mangold show and Bob, who is 77, hasn’t had a show in five years. Recently we’ve had Richard Pousette-Dart, Kenneth Noland and Louise Nevelson, great artists from the 60s and 70s who are now being rediscovered. We are excited about a lot of different things.

LUX: Do you think art has replaced literature and music as the primary mode of cultural information?
MG: I wouldn’t count out music or literature. The most ancient art form is music; it pre-dates language. Historically, I think visual art sits somewhere between music and literature but it’s having its moment right now. We are in a visual society.

pacegallery.com

German-born, London-based Markus Lupfer is the man who gave us wearable and fun statement knitwear, not to mention some of the quirkiest accessories and outerwear. His creations are as at home in the bars of Hoxton as they are on the backs of chairs at La Soucoupe in Courchevel. His trademark witty glamour has earned Lupfer a following that includes Madonna, Cara Delevingne, Olivia Palermo and Rihanna. Kitty Harris catches up with him in between collections

LUX: What sparked your interest in fashion?
Markus Lupfer: I wanted to be a fashion designer since I was 16 years old… It was my dream and it was all I ever wanted to do! I used to draw and sketch during maths and English classes to the annoyance of my teachers.

LUX: Where did the inspiration for your sequin embroidered sweaters come from?
ML: I developed the very first sequin jumper in 2007, which was actually our sequin lip jumper. The lip is a reference to my signature, which are two lips (kiss kiss) instead of an ‘xx’. The first time I saw the embroidery test of the lip I loved it and it has grown from there.

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LUX: Your designs always have a playful, uplifting element like your cherry and lip motifs. How much does your mood guide your designing?
ML: At the beginning of the season I try to create an overall mood and feel for the collection. The mood of the girl is important and varies from season to season… sometimes she is more glamorous, sometimes she’s got more attitude and is tougher, sometimes she is more romantic… however, there is always something light-hearted in our collections.

LUX: In your AW15 men’s collection, your hand-drawn prints resembled comics, while the following year’s collection incorporated the bear and birds again. How do you keep your illustrations fresh?
ML: Each season the inspiration comes with an instinctive idea, something that really excites me at the time. It could be art, or a place, a movie or music; it really varies. I always try to find a point of difference with our illustrations, something new, something unusual, something desirable.

LUX: Why did you decide on the phrase ‘Don’t question it – wear it’ for this year’s pre-Fall collection?
ML: It was all about unusual contrasts. For example, we had some studded high-gloss belts styled with pretty dresses – it was an unusual combination, so that’s why we used that phrase.

LUX: What is the biggest challenge you face as a designer?
ML: We are now working on four womenswear collections a year, which means that there is a deadline every three months. It’s exciting but it’s also challenging.

LUX: Who is your ideal client?
ML: I am always so excited when I see someone wearing Markus Lupfer in the street. It really means a lot to me. I have been in the lucky position of dressing some of the most incredible girls, people like Rihanna, Beyoncé, Ellie Bamber and Maisie Williams.

Read next: Superchef Thomas Keller’s forward-thinking fine dining 

LUX: What lies ahead for the brand?
ML: This year we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of our lip design. We are working on a special project for autumn which is very exciting.

LUX: What is your proudest achievement in your career to date?
ML: Being able to be creative and do what I love most all of the time.

LUX: Are there any clothes you won’t wear?
ML: I don’t wear flip-flops.

LUX: If you had the chance to study again what would you learn?
ML: Astronomy – I would love to learn all about the stars and space.

LUX: What is your motto?
ML: Always enjoy what you do and try to make life more beautiful.

markuslupfer.com

Ever since legendary chef Thomas Keller opened his restaurant The French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley more than twenty years ago, he has been inspiring diners – and chefs – with his forward-thinking food. Keller tells Emma Love about his latest plans for fine dining without the fuss

Three years ago, American chef Thomas Keller reached a milestone in his illustrious career. The French Laundry, the Napa Valley restaurant he opened in 1994 and which quickly garnered international acclaim as well as three Michelin stars, reached its 20th anniversary. Some might use an occasion such as that as an excuse for throwing a party but Keller decided to spend $10 million on completely re-designing the kitchen and restaurant grounds. “There is a time that comes in life to push the envelope and explore new methods to stay relevant,” he says, citing the new state-of-the-art kitchen equipment and the 15,000-bottle wine cellar as examples of the changes that were unveiled in April this year. “That quest for evolution and wanting to shake things up has always been part of my DNA.”

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This comes as no surprise: Keller is a chef who has spent years challenging the industry with his restaurants (as well as The French Laundry, he is also behind Michelin-starred outposts of Per Se and Bouchon) where his ‘law of diminishing returns’ philosophy of cooking means that tasting menus come with multiple tiny courses where ingredients are never repeated. “The less you have of something, the more you appreciate it,” he reasons sensibly. “For me, not repeating ingredients is a challenge. If you use corn more than once in a ten-course menu that’s kind of lame, don’t you think? There’s so much variety out there and so many vegetables, we don’t need to use something twice.”

His quest for evolution – and changing the way we think about food – seems to be at the heart of all his projects from his wine label Modicum, which is used as an educational tool for his sommeliers, to Finesse, the bi-annual magazine he publishes in place of a newsletter which focuses on themes he considers to be important, such as community and design. “Modicum was set up so the sommeliers could work with the winery to understand about harvesting, blending and the many different aspects that go into producing wine,” he explains. “With Finesse we are also trying to educate and inspire by giving people an insight into what we do and touching on those topics where we can tell stories. It’s another way of having an impact.”

Then there’s Cup4Cup, which he began in 2010 in collaboration with his then research and development chef at The French Laundry, Lena Kwak. Initially offering a gluten-free flour blend which is a substitute for all-purpose flour, more recent products in the range (which is sold at Whole Foods in the US) include mixes for pizza, waffles and pie crusts. “I never thought I would produce flour,” says Keller. “When Lena started, her first task was to come up with a recipe for our signature salmon cornets. It’s the way people begin their meal at The French Laundry and they are iconic but the problem was that anyone who is food intolerant couldn’t eat them. We thought it was something that everyone should be able to enjoy so we created a gluten-free flour. The brilliance behind Cup4Cup is that you can literally replace a cup of regular flour with a cup of gluten-free flour and you can’t tell the cornets apart.”

Read next: Gucci’s Robert Triefus on how to create a sustainable fashion power house

As the Cup4Cup brand happened organically, so did his collaboration with friend and Italian olive oil producer Armando Manni, whose extra virgin olive oil is used at The French Laundry and Per Se. One day in 2010, the pair were in Keller’s Yountville backyard chatting about Manni’s idea for a chocolate bar made with olive oil (which preserves many of the natural antioxidants found in cocoa beans); Keller agreed to be his partner for the project on the spot. “Armando worked with the University of Florence and a laboratory in Paris on scientific trials to develop a new method that replaces cocoa butter with olive oil, but still retains the taste of chocolate,” recalls Keller. “At the eleventh hour, we realised that we couldn’t use a traditional factory because we required a fundamental change in the way the equipment was made.” Their solution? To modify the equipment and build their own factory, which added another two years to the development process. Finally, the K+M Extravirgin Chocolate bar launched in March.

Now he’s turning his attention to other projects, one of which is curating the restaurants at Hudson Yards, the largest retail, commercial and residential development in New York since the Rockefeller Center. “What we want is to create a community of neighbourhood restaurants. Not Michelin-star fine-dining necessarily, but places where you return again and again because you love their Dover sole or steak.” In other words, restaurants – such as Extebarri in Spain’s Basque country where he once ate what he described as “the most perfectly grilled sardine that I’ve ever had” – that create memories so people want to return. “If a chef executes a philosophy that gives you a positive, lasting memory, that’s what success is. That’s what we try and achieve at The French Laundry.”

thomaskeller.com

Gucci is the biggest Kering brand and, as a producer of leather and fashion garments, the one with the biggest sustainability challenges. In a candid exchange, Robert Triefus, Gucci’s EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, tells LUX how the label is tackling them.

LUX: Is there an awareness among all your staff of the broad Kering vision?
Robert Triefus: We are in luxury fashion. For some individuals, they will feel there is a contradiction in terms between sustainability and luxury fashion. But I think that you have to start from the premise that we are a business, a for-profit (not a not-for-profit) one that believes in its responsibility to lower its impact in terms of carbon footprint, waste management and social issues – how we can be responsible in our community. As the big picture, I think that this is the framework that we, as a group, work within.

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LUX: That big picture means not just reducing environmental impact but doing good in areas such as gender equality. Is this on the rise?
RT: It’s interesting because one of the impacts of the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States and his rather nationalistic approach has been that brands generally are looking at how they can contribute towards the debate on the promotion of certain rights. Equality as a whole is a significant topic in America and beyond because it has that kind of reach.

Going back to the mission of Kering, one of the key issues has always been the idea of gender equality, so when we launched CHIME FOR CHANGE [co-founded by François-Henri Pinault’s wife Salma Hayek, a leading campaigner on gender equality issues] three years ago, it was something we believed in both as a brand and as something that makes very good sense given the number of female clients we have. But also within the framework of Kering’s overall mission, it resided very well under that overall umbrella.

Today, I think the issue of gender equality is widely seen because it has built momentum and it has acquired much more engagement in the media for a lot of different reasons. So, I think that over the past three years we’ve been engaging in this campaign because we believed it was the right thing to do as a campaign, and as a topic.

LUX: In the Dining Issue of LUX we have an interview with Marc Glimcher of Pace Gallery who says that they are doing public art because the public sector doesn’t have the money. Likewise, is no one stepping in to do what you are doing?
RT: I think over the past 10 to 20 years, the private sector in its different manifestations has become much more active partly in the growth of understanding of the role that corporations, brands and wealthy, successful entrepreneurs can play. If you look at the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffets of this world and what they are doing today, you can see that they feel they have responsibilities and the capacity of a small country to carry them out.

Read next: Abercrombie & Kent founder Geoffrey Kent on the value of luxury travel

LUX: How does the responsibility element, the CHIME FOR CHANGE, link with the sustain-ability element of Kering’s strategy?
RT: Within Kering’s ten-year strategy there are pillars. One of them is focused on the environment, and all what we do goes with that. When you use the word sustainability, it’s immediately associated with the environment. But the second pillar is about social good with campaigns such as CHIME FOR CHANGE on gender equality and other philanthropic activities. The third pillar is more in the area of innovation. Kering looks at sustainability in a broad sense under the notion of responsibility to the environment and to humanity. This innovation is driving ways of doing business differently across the area of sustainability.

LUX: Gucci and CHIME FOR CHANGE support women’s and girls’ causes and you partner with the action group Global Citizen. It’s a good ex-ample of a corporation taking responsibility for social campaigning. Is this continuing?
RT: Yes, the fact that equality is more under question than it was a year ago, certainly in the most developed country in the world [the US], means that we as a campaign movement are going to be busier than before, probably. We are always looking for ways we can be more effective in getting our message out there. Music as a convening force will be part of what we do. We will be having festivals in New York and Berlin. There will be another CHIME FOR CHANGE hackathon supported by Facebook. We are looking for something in the art community, and will continue to be active as we have in the past, and what we could do in the future.

LUX: Will consumers start to demand that luxury brands are responsible? Are you seeing this now or do they just not care?
RT: No, I think they assume that we are responsible and sustainable so I think it would become punitive if it becomes apparent that we have not been acting in that way. At the same time I think – and it’s a bit of a cliché now – the millennials and generation Z are definitely growing up much more aware because they are living in an environment that is more in question. Therefore, they are increasingly aware of the negative impact that companies can have. So, let’s say that the expectation that you are responsible is put at an even greater premium.

LUX: As we go forward, will you push Kering’s sustainability message forward more in Gucci?
RT: I think the point is that we are a for-profit, not not-for-profit, so we are de facto never going to be perfect. Now, we are not going to make this the unique selling point of our brand, maybe it’s different in the case of Stella McCartney as it is part of her DNA, but by and large it is something we believe companies and ourselves should be doing. We are not going to shout from the rooftops because frankly someone could justifiably say, “hang on a minute, you should be that way, so why are you shouting about it?”

gucci.com

A short blast in a vintage Ferrari from the crowds of the Côte d’Azur, the two most prestigious villages in the Alps offer glamour, sunshine, fine dining and more than enough space. Darius Sanai would go nowhere else in summer

Walking through the grand dining room of Le Restaurant at the Badrutt’s Palace, I felt two dozen pairs of eyes glance up at me. Our table, a good one, was a little beyond the centre of the room, meaning a decent double catwalk’s length stretched between the landing at the bottom of the staircase leading from the lobby hall, to the sanctuary of the table. The glances – Badrutt’s Palace clientèle is far too well brought up to stare – varied between the mildly interested and the appraising. The Palace has a claim to be the grandest legacy hotel of the Alps, the epitome of old money in St Moritz, the resort which personifies Europe’s inherited and regenerated wealth. Its regular guests wanted to know who was joining them.

After a couple of days, we got to know the Badrutt’s regulars, at their tables. The lady in the Chanel glasses, immaculate in white Dior trousers and a vintage Dior jacket, sitting and nursing her green tea and water, reading the Süddeutsche Zeitung. A ringer for Greta Garbo, she could have been one of a number of German movie stars from the sixties. The young couple with a little boy who conversed with them in French, English and Italian, seemingly at will, and who had befriended all the waiters. The jolly English family, extending from a baby via teenage girls on Instagram to a paterfamilias who looked like he had enjoyed as many bottles of First Growths as he had bought and sold enterprises. After three days, we started to feel at home.

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Badrutt’s is the hotel of St Moritz; if you want to get in to its New Year’s Eve gala dinner, you had better get in your time machine and ensure your great-great-grandmother marries a significant German count. We were there in summer, when it’s easier to book a room; in fact, the occupancy ratio was perfect, with enough people around to create a buzz, but enough space not to feel remotely crowded.

If Le Restaurant, with its etiquette and dress code, suggests the formal holiday experiences of the past, around 50m diagonally below it, cut into the rocks, is the holiday experience of today. A 25m pool, with picture windows facing the mountainsides across the valley and an extensive spa and wet area. The pool is bordered on one side by a 5m-high rock formation, which serves as diving board, waterfall and, underneath, a cave. Outside on the great lawn are swings, slides and a trampoline, all with a dramatic view.

Our rooms had the same view, albeit from a slightly higher vantage point; creams and floral curtains, subtle wood panelling and mahogany furniture suggest the tastes of the European aristocracy who form the heart of the hotel’s clientèle.

One of the most charming, and certainly the most surprising, element of the hotel is a little chalet that sits on the hillside across the road from the main building. Chesa Veglia is an ancient chalet that now belongs to the hotel, housing three restaurants, including a casual-chic rustic pizzeria, where the super-rich can eat with their hands and pretend to be normal people. We sat at a table on a first floor balcony, watching informal St Moritz in action; one of our party was invited down to make pizzas with the chefs in the open kitchen. The pizzas, Napoli-style, were picture perfect.

Read next: CEO & President of Acqua di Parma Laura Burdese on the unique beauty of craftsmanship

It would have been easy to chill out in Badrutt’s for five days, perhaps stepping outside for a little jewellery shopping, before sliding into the limo and slipping away across Europe. I get the idea a lot of people do; while it’s 1800m up in a high Alpine valley, unlike many villages in the Alps, St Mo is not exactly crawling with people who look like they clamber up rock faces for fun.

But the mountains either side of the broad, high, light Engadine valley are far too tempting for anyone with a little mountain blood in them to ignore. On the second day, we took a funicular train through a steep forest, emerging at an Art Deco-inspired hotel called Muottas Muragl. High on a ledge just above the tree line, the hotel’s restaurant terrace floated over the Engadine, with the valley’s lakes set as blue splashes against the deep meadows; and also over another valley branching out immediately below, which rose to a wall of high peaks thickly covered in snow and ice. In this surreal setting, on a warm, sunny summer’s day, we sat on the terrace, and chose from a short menu strong on local ingredients and with a dash of panache. Perhaps it was the clear mountain air which augmented the senses (although a lack of oxygen is supposed to suppress taste buds) but the beef tartar with cognac tasted more vivid, more limpid, than its famed counterpart at the Cipriani; and a ‘Pork steak gratinated with tomato and mountain cheese on red wine sauce with pappardelle and vegetables’ had clearly delineated flavours, unlike some mountain food. The Muottas Muragl terrace was as memorable as its name, and we lingered until the view started to fade in the late afternoon light, before staggering down the mountain through a forest.

Apart from St Moritz, Switzerland, the country where the world’s wealthy have stored their money and visited for sport for the past century or more, has a few mountain village destinations that are known to the high net worth A-list. Zermatt, Crans-Montana, Verbier, Wengen, Arosa; all have their bijou appeal, their private bank branches, and are witness to a parade of furs in winter. But perhaps nowhere epitomises what Henry James called “the happy few” (the reference was ironic, but is now not always used as such) as Gstaad. And if the Palace Hotel has been the embodiment of old money at play for more than a century, its new rival, The Alpina Gstaad, tries to take everything to a new high.

The Alpina is built on a knoll just above the village of Gstaad, facing off against the Palace, on its neighbouring knoll. For breakfast here, we were ushered through a room combining ancient Alpine timbers and contemporary art and colour, onto a granite-lined terrace next to a flowerbed and a few metres from an outdoor pool. Beyond the pool, a lawn and more flowers, and then an uninterrupted view across a broad valley to round, forested hillsides, with rocky peaks splashed with snow beyond.

It was August when we visited the Alpina. Gstaad is one of the lower Alpine resorts, at 1000m lying roughly halfway between the high-Alpine vibe of the likes of St Moritz or Courchevel, and sea level. The sunshine was hot, tempered only by a hint of glacial cool. It wasn’t a great leap to imagine the crowds on the Côte d’Azur and people leaping off yacht diving boards, a few hours’ drive in the Ferrari, to the south. But, unlike the Med, the terrace at the Alpina was both sun-splashed and tranquil. After breakfast we walked the few metres to the pool’s sun loungers and spent the day sipping Margaritas and occasionally taking a dip, being careful not to get burned in the (semi) mountain sun. We had a few other people for company, but it all felt as private as having your own villa.

In the evening, we strolled down to the village; there were no teeming hordes here, either. Just enough people, from families to retired residents and the occasional romantic couple; just enough vibe.

Gstaad may be a gentler location, but it is still very much in the Alps; on the next day we took a cable car to Wispile, at the top of the small mountain overlooking the village. From the terrace here there is a 360-degree vista, towards high, glacial peaks to the south; across spiky, meadow-lined foot-peaks to the east and west; and to the northernmost ridge of the Alps to the north, with a glimpse of the hazy lowlands of Switzerland beyond. We walked along a series of meadows, past forests and farmsteads, through herds of curious cattle, and were ourselves herded onto a rock by an Appenzell cattle dog, until its smiling farmer owner emerged from a barn to tell us she was harmless.

Read next: The world’s most exclusive polo tournament in Gstaad

A steep, zigzag path dropped down through a forest, so dark we only had snapshots of the precipitous fall beneath us; after almost disappearing through a muddy field, the path emerged again and led us to a hotel on the edge of a little village, Lauenen, where we had a refreshing beer and called a taxi to take us back to dinner in another picture-postcard village, Schoenried. This is on a little plateau above Gstaad, and at its gourmet restaurant, Azalée, we felt we had no choice but to try the Simmental beef – acclaimed throughout the Alps, and from the valley we were in. The Azalée, with its vista across the Gstaad valley, was a gentle, spiritual place to be as summer evening turned into night.

Switzerland is the home of haute-hotellerie; nowhere has a higher concentration of five star hotels in small towns and villages. These hotels have faced a challenge as a new generation of wealthy guests arrives, brought up on the casual chic of the likes of Ian Schrager’s creations and the Soho House group. How much do they bend to cater for the new guard? In some cases, new hotels have sprung up which feel a little out of place, Greenwich Village in the Alps. In the case of the Alpina, which was created in 2012 on the site of an old hotel of the same name, the balance is exemplary. The building feels local through its extensive use of timber rescued from abandoned Alpine buildings and huts, and through the local stone on display throughout. It feels contemporary through the openness of its internal architecture, its colour, light and the museum-quality art displayed throughout, courtesy of its owners. None of that would matter if the quality of offerings didn’t stack up.

Sommet, the main restaurant, has a Michelin star, the highest Gault-Millau rating in the area, and a wall sculpture composed entirely of cutlery, under which we were seated. Expecting fine but rich Alpine fare, we were surprised: then executive chef Marcus Lindner’s tasting menu is 100% vegetarian, with carnivores catered to on request (Lindner has since been replaced by Martin Göschel). Redolent of the aromas of Alpine meadows, the succession of dishes proved that meat is far from essential to a signature evening: as one example, the artichoke with truffles from Perigord, sweet chestnut and brussels sprout was as savoury and protein-balanced as you could hope. It would be hard to match such an experience – in such a refreshingly light ambience – let alone to do so in the same establishment.

 

Megu is a Japanese restaurant, overseen by chefs who have come over from the homeland expressly to create a slice of finest Tokyo in the Alpine hills. Toro tartare with ponzu sauce, fresh water shrimp and Oscietra caviar was a study in subtle contrasts. We developed a serious yearning for the crispy asparagus crumbed with Japanese rice crackers, chilli and lemon – more, please, every day. It’s fine dining with a slice of wit, and a thorough and reasonably priced Swiss wine list – pinot noirs from Malans, Cornalin from Valais, local white grapes from the edge of Lake Geneva, all wines you just can’t find outside Switzerland.

Megu–sleep–pool terrace–repeat. What’s not to love about August in the Alps?

Our thanks to the Switzerland Travel Centre for organising first-class transportation on Switzerland’s beautifully efficient train network: switzerlandtravelcentre.co.uk

badruttspalace.com, thealpinagstaad.ch

 

 

Plenty, if you listen to Marie-Claire Daveu. She is in charge of Kering’s 2025 sustainability strategy, the broadest plan of its kind ever created by the fashion and luxury sector. LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai sat down with her at Kering’s spectacular new offices in Paris to learn more about how Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta et al will become paragons of social responsibility – and why it matters.

“It’s beautiful, and it lets you feel like you can breathe.” Marie-Claire Daveu is looking at a ‘living wall’ on the lower ground floor of her company headquarters; the wall is covered with plant life, a canvas of different shades of green. A few steps behind her, a large space, gently lit, is punctuated by what look at first to be types of dwelling, but turn out to be beautifully sculpted pseudo-retail showrooms. It all feels like the public areas of a boutique hotel, perhaps one carved out of an old chateau.

But we are not in a hotel; we are at Laennec, the headquarters of Kering, luxury and fashion group founded by French industrial titan Francois Pinault and now run by his son, Francois-Henri Pinault. Kering, formerly PPR and before that Gucci Group, owns Gucci, Bottega Veneta, YSL, Brioni, Boucheron, Stella McCartney and numerous other prestigious brands, as well as sportswear maker Puma. [Mr Pinault Sr also owns the auction house Christies and the first growth Bordeaux wine estate Chateau Latour.]

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But I am not here, at Kering’s new headquarters, to talk fashion. Daveu, as Chief Sustainability Officer, is in charge of the group’s industry-leading sustainability and corporate responsibility ethos, a ground-breaking philosophy that has since its inception in 2012 required each brand to self-impose a rigorous Environmental P&L, which is published publicly, to ascertain how it has complied with the high bars on sustainability, sourcing, carbon footprint, water usage, and other measures stipulated by Daveu.

The philosophy is the brainchild of Pinault Jr, who stated simply that “We have no choice”. Earlier this year, it was expanded into a more comprehensive plan for 2025 which includes a widespread promotion of women within the Kering group and a commitment to reduce the group’s environmental footprint by 40%.

Laennec is the physical embodiment of the Kering philosophy. Formerly a hospital, opened in 1634 and functioning until 2000, it is a palatial building in the heart of the Left Bank. Walk through the gates into the vast courtyard and you could be strolling through the grounds of a chateau in the Loire; there is not a hint of corporate branding, not a suggestion that you are anywhere except within the demise of a beautifully kept stately home (in the centre of Paris!).

This minimal impact on the environment was one of the key concepts behind the company’s move last year.

Daveu, slim, chic, and articulate, looks every inch the Kering woman; but she is a conservation academic by training and was most recently the chief of staff within the French Ministry of Ecology. We head along through some more wonderfully welcoming workspaces – the vibe is more hotel-museum-bar than office – into a meeting room. Daveu is enthusiastic, chatty, curious; she takes the copy of LUX I have brought with me and leafs through it, ogling an image of a mountain retreat, wishing she could be there.

She is also candid about the reasons behind Kering’s responsibility strategy and in explaining why individual Kering brands do not necessarily drum the corporate philosophy into their consumers.

Very rarely in the marketing-led world of luxury and fashion does one come across an individual or corporation undergoing a programme, let alone creating an entire corporate strategy, that is not directly aimed at increasing the bottom line in an easily-demonstrable way, whether through sales, PR hits leading to sales, or cost-cutting wrapped in eco-sophistry (like all the hotels who volunteer not to wash your linen for you unless you ask). And yet, Kering’s sustainability and (from 2017) corporate responsibility and equality strategy appear to be precisely that; a philosophy created by an owner aimed simply at raising the bar in luxury and, if not exactly making the world a better place (you couldn’t claim to do that while selling leather bags and shoes and shipping textiles around the world), then limiting and in many cases reversing the harm we are doing to it; as the interview highlights below illustrate.

LUX: It has now been more than five years since Kering launched its sustainability strategy. How would you score yourself?
Marie-Claire Daveu: From the beginning, Francois-Henri Pinault defined sustainability as something really key to him. We first defined a set of targets in 2012, for 2016. During the spring of 2016 we communicated externally where we were with every target. That was key to us, because we feel that one of our values, beyond sustainability, is transparency. Transparency not only internally, with our employees, with all of our stakeholders. So that is why we had the feeling that we had not only to communicate the good results, but also when we were not able to reach our targets. And to try and explain why we were not able to reach a target.

So I think it is very important to show that even if you are a major company, you have some difficulties. And it is also through working with other people, people from your own industry, but also universities and NGOs, that you will be able to tackle the issue with and come up with the right solution.

So in a nutshell, we can say, we’ve had major successes. Such as in PVC. One of our targets was to really eliminate PVC from all of our products and we can say we are at 99% PVC free. We were also able to work a lot on our ethics goals because we defined what our ethics goals were. We bought 55 kilos of fair-mined gold. We also have other targets; bovine leather and calf’s leather. The objective was to be sure that they were 100% sustainable. What was very important in this first step was knowing they were 100% sustainable by knowing the traceability. And the first difficulty we found was knowing where it was really coming from. We now have good results for example with crocodiles and alligators – we are over 90% sustainable. Now, when we speak about precious skins we are over 60% sustainable; and this shows that in some areas we have to continue to work on it.

Another development is that now when we make a new hire, they know that they have to be totally involved in the sustainability path. This is also something that creates a real dynamic inside the company. It’s something that is really key. In 2016 we were recognised by external rankings that we still continue to lead our industry in this field.

When we spoke before you mentioned the Materials Innovation Laboratory [a closed location in Italy where the company’s scientists and technicians experiment with new materials]…what I would say is interesting to see is that it has become something very natural for the brand and the design team to cross to the materials from the innovation lab. We need to really push and to create this kind of cross-fertilisation. We say, ‘Go to see them, they are doing interesting things. They can open your mind about new topics.’ So now, we have direct contact between the design teams and the team based in Novara in the Materials Innovation Laboratory. This is one of the key successes of which we can be very proud.

LUX: This year is a key year for Kering – your strategy has moved beyond sustainability and also into human responsibility. Why?
Marie-Claire Daveu: At the end of 2015 we made a major decision that we would like to write a new chapter on sustainability for the next 10 years. That’s why we talked about 2025 [in a media announcement early in 2017]. We made a decision saying we want to continue to define the standards on the social side and on the environmental side. We want to define what we call the sustainable luxury sector or luxury industry, or luxury products. It applies to those three words. We had the feeling with the strength of the work we have done that we can have a 360 degree approach about sustainability.

That’s why this time we decided not only to work with an action plan on the environmental side, but also to include more of the social side. This also links to not only with our own human resources, but to think outside of the boundaries in the supply chain, and also for broader society. As luxury leaders we set the trends, so it was key to work on the social side. We want to also formalise more and to think not only for the short term but the long run too.

One of the most important difficulties I have to manage is that we are in an industry where people, not everyone, are more focused on short term. But when we are speaking about sustainability, we are thinking about the long term. In this company we are very lucky because Francois-Henri Pinault thinks really long term; he doesn’t think short term. But you also have to push inside the company. When you meet some CEOs you speak about the end of the year, that’s okay because it works for the fashion calendar. When you are speaking for the next 10 years, its not obvious for them. Because previously we did not ask them to think in this way. But when you are in sustainability one important learning in our action plan is also the fact that if you want to change things in depth, you have to have time.

You can make incremental progress in the short term, and you have to; but if you are thinking to change a paradigm and change a business model as we want to do, you have to accept that it will take time. 10 years sounds a lot but in reality it is nothing. So you have to think long term, and at the same time to have a calendar accepted by our people also.

LUX: Is it a challenge to get CEOs and other staff to think so long term?
Marie-Claire Daveu: It’s a challenge. So that’s why to tackle this issue we decided to create a specific steering committee for this project. This steering committee was the Kering executive committee. So the first time, at the level of the group, we had the executive group becoming the steering committee of a project; it was to send a strong signal that sustainability is really at the core of our business strategy.

So during 2016 we defined this new strategy. We organised two kinds of road shows. Francois-Henri met the executive committee of every brand to explain why sustainability is key. Also to see how they approached this topic. And he did the same thing with every designer and his or her team. So for the first time we met all the designers and their teams to have an open conversation about sustainability and how they can be more engaged with this field. We have new designers and all of them were very open about this topic. Most of them, not all of them, were really interested.

LUX: Were they interested because they are the younger generation?
Marie-Claire Daveu: Yes. And also when you are a designer you understand the world where you are living. If you don’t understand you won’t be successful. They don’t know the technical side in detail, but they understand that it is not possible to not take into account environmental topics or the social topic, in the supply chain.

After that, where it becomes really interesting is the fact they can express in their manner their expectation, and it’s our job to give them the right tools and opportunities to transform their vision into reality. In our sector the key people are the designer and their team, so if you don’t involve them in the story…okay you will do a great job with the building and the boutiques, but you won’t change the paradigm. During it you can see how much Francois-Henri was involved as he had to see each brand twice every year to explain why sustainability is key. So it was a good exercise for him to wrap up his philosophy and the way we were doing things.

LUX: And do the designers then start to think differently even before they start to design? So instead of thinking let’s use that material for that design they start at the beginning and think what can we design that will be the most sustainable?
Marie-Claire Daveu: We don’t put sustainability as a constraint for the designer or do something that limits their creativity, because at the end of the day they have the last word. But the reaction of most of designers was “oh thinking like that it stimulates us and also our creativity and it gives us another way to think about it”. So for example if we are speaking about fur, they will come and ask their team ‘Could you tell me if this kind of species is okay?’

And it’s our job from the technical side to identify the suppliers of the cotton farming that will produce organic cotton for example. Cashmere has a major impact on the environmental side because of the land use. So when you look at the EP&L even if you are using a small volume you have a big impact. So it’s very interesting to say look at that, and then after they can make a different choice or we can also say let’s try to find other suppliers in other countries where we will reduce our impact. So it is also how we can create platforms for raw materials. It’s not making the revolution, because when we speak on a lot of topics also with our own experience from the period of 2012 to 2016 I think know we have clearer diagnosis. We have many, many interesting pilot projects. I won’t say we have all of the solutions but we have many solutions. One of the issues of the group is to really put at scale all of the pilot projects we have identified. So that is why also we have both where the designer can come and ask questions and propose them and after it is only to do the roll out of pilot projects.

LUX: Do you personally have conversations, formal and informal, with for instance Tomas Maier [the designer at Bottega Veneta]?
Marie-Claire Daveu: Yes, we began our road show with Thomas Maier, and he for example, during the first period Francois-Henri was also very involved to eliminate and remove PVC for the collection. And they found a way not to use it. But really I don’t want to make a difference between all of the designers because really all of them, I don’t want to speak about Stella, because Stella is also showing the way in the sustainability field, so it’s a little different. But for all of the rest of the designers they were very open and they were very involved in doing something.

To give you a concrete number for the environmental side we want to reduce our environmental footprint by 40%. This is huge. When I say this kind of number perhaps people won’t react and think it’s something huge but it’s nearly half of our environmental footprint. To do that it’s not only in our own operations, but working on the supply chain. If you remember, over 93 per cent of our environmental footprint is linked with the whole supply chain. Seven per cent is linked with our operations only. So if you want to reduce you have to work not only very closely with your suppliers, but also to make a link to find innovative solutions. So that is why to be able to reach this 40% we want to first apply everywhere what we call our ‘Kering Standard Target line’ which means of course to take into account the environmental side, social side and the welfare of animals. One of the topics we want to push during this new chapter is really the criteria for animal welfare. We also feel that as a luxury company we can really push this.

To do all of this, the reduction of the environmental footprint by 40%, we are defining the number for every brand. To be sure that at the end of the day when you add everything up of Gucci, Brioni and Qeelin, for example, that you will reach a reduction of 40% across all of the brands. What we communicate as a strategy is at the level of Kering because as we are Kering what we think is key is to show as a luxury group we can reduce by 40% our environmental footprint. And after, of course, the way of doing it won’t be the same if you are in Stella McCartney or Gucci because you don’t use the same raw materials, you don’t produce the same products and also the design won’t be the same. As concrete example, we can speak about the welfare of pythons, but Stella McCartney doesn’t sue leather or fur so this kind of issue won’t apply to her. Now, if Stella uses new generations of materials she will also analyse their impact on energy because sometimes we have feel we have great ideas and when you do the lifecycle analysis you see its very energy intensive so you have to pay attention.

LUX: Gender parity within your company is also an aim.
Marie-Claire Daveu: At the level of the company we are nearly 60% women but then you have numbers by brands and then by functions. So our objective, like in nature, is to create biodiversity everywhere, at every level and function. So again it is not to apply quotas but it is to take the best but we change the mentality too. It’s an ongoing process. Its 58% women for the groups and then 29% on the executive committee and 64% of directors are women. We are now the board with the most women in the France. We are 64% at the level of the board in France! I can’t tell you how much of a great success it is, because we are a Latin country. Less than Italy but we are a Latin country. Its something new and Francois-Henri wants really to continue to push this. Of course we pay attention to the quality of the people, it’s not to only have women, or international people – if they are not good they are not good. The second goal we have is that we want to be the best place to work in the luxury industry. You can say that that is a little vague so to be sure that it is not only our internal investments we want to use external recognition as we did with sustainability. For example, when you are speaking about climate change you have CDP ranking. So we will try to be recognised externally. The last topic, very linked with business, is that we want to continue and reinforce craftsmanship and specific skills in our industry. It sounds very easy. But we are very conscious we won’t be able to do this by ourselves, even if we have the Bottega Veneta school, the Brioni school, Gucci is working hard with universities but when we are speaking about watches and jewellery we need also to have specific partnerships in Switzerland because we need specific skills but at the same time we won’t hire so many people. It’s something we need to think outside of the box to create something new.

LUX: These new developments, for example the animal welfare, is that all part of your job?
Marie-Claire Daveu: Yes. My job is to find specific certifications, to say to work on in this place in the world not everywhere. When we are speaking about fur, to use not this species but more of this species. So we write guidelines and standards and we give them the tools to reach and apply this standard. This is the work of my team. And after to implement the operations it is the job of the people in the brands. So it is under the responsibility of the CEOs and the designers. We don’t want to only say: “you have to, you have to!” But also to support them. And sometimes, perhaps, we will make big mistakes, so it’s key also to have their feedback and to see what it means. When you are speaking about sustainability we are not NGOs, so we also have to earn money and to be realistic and to be pragmatic.

LUX: Presumably it would be harder to do all of this is the company were not majority-controlled by the Pinault family?
Marie-Claire Daveu: I don’t have that in mind, because we don’t think like that. It’s not a cost, it’s an investment.

LUX: With the end consumer, say the average Gucci consumer for example, are they aware (any more than before) that this is a brand that takes its sustainability and welfare seriously? And does that matter?
Marie-Claire Daveu: I don’t have the quantitative answer; I only hope so. As you know, we don’t communicate directly to our consumer when we speak about sustainability. On this point there are no changes. Perhaps Stella McCartney is communicating a little bit more than before directly with her clients.

LUX: But that was always part of her brand.
Marie-Claire Daveu: But when you buy the product of Stella McCartney it is not written that they are sustainable products. You have, for instance, written organic cotton but if you don’t look for it you won’t see it. And when you enter the shop you don’t know.

Some people think, if they don’t know that about Stella McCartney pieces, they believe that the python skin shoes are real python!

LUX: Maybe only a minority of people are aware. But with Stella it’s one step for the consumer to research, whereas with Bottega or Gucci it’s two steps – “Its Bottega; Bottega is owned by Kering; and Kering has this broad sustainability strategy.”
Marie-Claire Daveu: Gucci, Bottega or YSL, they don’t communicate all of this directly to the customer, true. With brands like Gucci, they are doing some communication at the corporate level. You have Gucci and Global Citizen and Gucci and Chime for Change, but its more focused on the social side. You also have Marco Bizzarri, who has given a few key interviews where he has said a few words on sustainability. But it’s not strong and tough communication, true. As part of Kering they are fully free to communicate or not to communicate. As Kering I think we try to communicate, but I’m sure not enough because it takes lots of time, we communicate more to our industry. As Kering, I am not able to tackle our customers of the brands. But again, our customers are also citizens and they read the newspaper and they look at what happens in NGOs so I am sure they have more information, but, yes it is not obvious. So they have to make the link. Francois-Henri Pinault does not want to put sustainability at the core of the business strategy to sell more products but instead for two reasons. First for ethical reasons and secondly because he thinks there is no other option. It is a necessity if we want to continue our business.

Further, is the fact that I have the feeling that with social media, the new generation ask more questions. They are curious what is behind the products. And when we go to the boutiques and speak to our employees they say that more and more people are asking questions. So it’s good!

LUX: But it’s unusual for a luxury industry to be doing so much and not communicate it via the brands, no?
Marie-Claire Daveu: That’s why we are different. In luxury we are unique. I always say it is the spirit of Francois-Henri that when you are speaking about luxury, sustainability is inherent to the quality. Just as you don’t describe the quality of your product in all of the details. You know its heritage…so it’s a similar approach. You take a care of the people and you take care of the planet.

One thing that is very important in our philosophy is to openly share our discoveries. And to make the link with innovation. We feel that on the social side, but also on the environmental side, that in the next chapter of our strategy we need to push innovation. And to do this we will take two approaches. First is to invest in start-ups and new companies. New companies that can invent new processes or identify new raw materials which could be very interesting. And the other axis is to create more cross fertilisation between our company and other companies. I don’t speak only about digital; it could be with the car industry or the food industry but to create something new.

LUX: Is that underway already?
Marie-Claire Daveu: No. It’s something want to put in place in our next chapter. And to also work with the technical people in these industries helps to imagine the future. That’s why the supply chain is important. The beginning of the structure is steel forte. It’s really the raw materials because you can have a lot of impact here. Thinking of raw materials that can work across the entire industry. When you are thinking about biodiversity you can think across the industry. I can’t disclose the name but today we are organising a meeting with a few companies which are not in our sector to speak about natural capital. It’s also a way to change the world, to make a better world and also to be very pragmatic. When you are speaking as Kering for many raw materials or processes, even if you are a major company of a big size, we are not big enough to change alone. That’s why we need to go with other sectors that are using the same processes and the same raw materials. And it’s not linked with creativity or the fact that luxury is unique. You have to divide. You have the “back office” and after you have creation – creation is key. But we have a lot of work to do on the basic things. You asked me about the customers…a lot of people ask this question. I think to be honest it will take time. For me, they don’t ask questions because they think the luxury world is already perfect. This is why we are continuing with this strategy and connected with the London College of Fashion. We feel that training is important but in fact it is very operational because we anticipate a need to prepare the next generation of people who will work in the fashion world. For us it is time and investment. We don’t have a direct feedback about money but we feel that it is our responsibility. If they have this way of thinking during their studies, when they take responsibility in brands it won’t be a question for them. It will be something they put into reality very quickly. We developed our app with Parsons in the United States called “My EP&L” for the students. We simplified the EP&L a lot but it’s to show the environmental cost of each of the materials and processes involved in the student’s design. For example, which material, from where, to manufacture where and then you get the result of your environmental footprint. Behind every item we have a way to calculate each of its environmental impact. After, what is very pedagogical is that you can change silk to cotton instead and you will see you will reduce your footprint by only changing one thing you can make a big difference. For students this is great fun.

LUX: In terms of the specific stories where we are talking about production and the sourcing, in terms of your suppliers, are there any stories about how suppliers have changed or you have chosen suppliers who have changed their ways so it has benefitted both the environmental, the humanitarian and social side?
Marie-Claire Daveu: It’s a tough question to answer. What we have done and what we are doing with some suppliers is to apply a program which we call “clean by design”. It’s more focused on the environmental side which I why I’m not answering for the social side. What is interesting to think is that first, these suppliers are not only working for us, so when we apply this program it is to create a specific relationship with the supplier and we hope that it will also be useful for their own business. They can present to other customers the fact that they take into account the environmental side, energy and water consumption etc. So I will say one very big major program we have is suppliers in Italy and we want to develop this program outside of Europe for example, in China. We also have a specific program linked with embroidery in India. I don’t know if you know how it embroidery factories work in India but its men, because this kind of work is not done by women. You have a different kind of structure and now all the luxury companies are going to their embroidery to India because you have this kind of skill there. So we are trying to develop a specific program with these kind of suppliers not only to improve the working conditions of the employees but also to give them a vision and support them in developing their business in the future. Also to pay attention to the fact it is noble to work in this field to continue so the next generation are inspired too. We have to work more and we want to go beyond social compliance and work on capacity building. That’s for the next chapter. When you are talking about social compliance it’s less sexy as a story. But its hard work we have implemented in 2016 we have work to continue to put sustainability clauses in our contracts. To put in place a specific team to do audits in our supply chain. We create this new entity at the level of the group, at the corporate level, the report of the internal audit. We create the structure, the process to be sure. And this takes time as we also need to explain to our suppliers why this is key. Not only to have control, we are not policemen, but it is a win-win effect for them. When we meet problems we won’t say we won’t work with you but it’s to help support them implement the right solution.

LUX: And these suppliers are presumably long term suppliers? Because they are going to change their structures to work with you?
Marie-Claire Daveu: I wouldn’t say it like that. Most of our suppliers in the luxury side we know them very because we have been working with them for a long time. When they make these changes in investment and practice it’s not only for us. The world is changing. So if they want to develop their business in they need to develop their sectors to include sustainable criteria. One of the key elements we want to share with them is that it is not just to please us but it is also a self-investment. Of course the size is not the same because when you are in luxury its small suppliers, kind of atelier, you don’t have so many people. But they need our support and the support of other big groups to help them. This takes time. My opinion is that it takes time because you have this small structure. When we change suppliers, for example if we have a new designer and he wants a new kind of fabric, and you need to identify a new supplier, we are doing pre audits. The contracts, the clauses, the support. So it is really a partnership with the suppliers in this field. After explaining to them how important this is and they are interested in this it’s good for them. But at the beginning they only see it as a constraint. It takes time, you need money and you have to accept it will take time to explain everything.

LUX: And then it has a much bigger effect on the industry.
Marie-Claire Daveu: Yes, you have a kind of snow ball effect.

LUX: Fast fashion and disposable fashion are very un-environmentally friendly. Is that a challenge? Or does it not affect you because it’s not your part of the industry?
Marie-Claire Daveu: I would say as Kering we have our vision, and we implement it, after that I hope we can influence others. To set standards in our sector, we can help and support change. We are all in the textile sector – and we are the second most polluting sector. So as a sector we really have to include into sustainability or we won’t be able to continue. As Kering we try do the best we can within our own boundaries and we try after to influence our suppliers and to show others that it is possible to include sustainability. Which is why it comes back to the designers and the universities because if you raise awareness about this kind of topic to new generations who will work in our industry…not all will work in the luxury industry but in the textile industry it is good to spread sustainability everywhere.

LUX: Tell us about this sustainable HQ building. Were you personally involved?
Marie-Claire Daveu: Yes. We are the first building in France, with this kind of certification, both the BREEAM and HQE. When you are building for the first time, creating a new building, it is easier than in our case, when you have to manage with an old monument or a pre-existing building. This was more complicated because you have to respect the culture and the history and at the same time add to it. We are the first historical building to have the BREEAM certificate. You can’t just do what you want. You have to respect the culture of the building which I think is important, but of course also it costs more. And if you don’t want to spend more and more money, you have to be innovative and to find a way to be environmentally friendly and to keep the culture of the place. Step one was the building and step two is how you manage the building. We are involved in both because we feel the number of kilowatts a business can lower is huge.

We are also going to make honey in our garden with our own bees. This summer, certain people will be receiving a small quantity of honey from Kering – it will be so luxury. Très très chic.

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