Caroline on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony in May this year

Caroline Scheufele is co-president of Chopard, the Swiss jeweller and watchmaker that has been run by her family for more than 150 years. As head of the women’s collections and fine-jewellery range, she has made the Cannes Film Festival a dazzling stage for the brand’s showbiz ambassadors to display a new range of bespoke creations every year. Her time running the company has seen the rise of the Chinese market and the emergence of social media. LUX Editor in-Chief Darius Sanai visits her at Chopard’s Geneva HQ to discuss doing business in Beijing, how to keep innovating and how the best ideas come in the rain

LUX: We just looked at the atelier where you create your individual pieces, and what struck me was the creativity and ‘anything goes’ style of these one-offs. Is Chopard becoming more creative or has it always been like this?
Caroline Scheufele: I think Chopard has always been known for being one of the most creative in the watch and jewellery market. But over the years there has been a big evolution – especially over the past 10 years when I started to introduce the Red Carpet collection that we release annually in Cannes. We started with the 60th anniversary, so crazily enough I said we will make 60 special pieces, and every year we add one, so we are now up to 71.

Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine

A Red Carpet Collection necklace

It’s a big challenge for the workshop. Over the past 10 years there was a big evolution and maybe even revolution within high jewellery because we started to work a lot with titanium and even now ceramic and aluminium, and you get a completely different finishing look than if you only work with gold. Personally, I love to wear big earrings and that’s why we started a lot with titanium because normally big earrings are very heavy because of the gold, and the worst thing is when you sit at a dinner and you see a woman taking off her earrings on the table because they hurt.

That’s also the practical side of it, if you use titanium – like on the big orchids in this year’s collection – they are like feathers. And now we can colour the titanium, which we can’t do with gold. When we started my father said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘It’s not written anywhere that diamonds have to be set in gold.’ It’s just historically always been done like that.

LUX: You were inspired by your recent travels?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, I travel a lot. I just came back from two weeks in China which is always very inspiring. And there are a lot of things you can pick up in ancient architecture or colours or music. But there is not a given moment when you say, ‘OK, today I’m going to sit down and be creative.’ It doesn’t happen like that. But it often happens when I travel which is good because I always come home with ideas and you always need new ideas. I love architecture. I think if I would not have been doing what I do with the family I probably would have gone into architecture.

Emerald and diamond earrings (above) and necklace from Chopard’s Red Carpet collection

LUX: When you are travelling, do you have to force yourself to go out of the usual itinerary to get to the inspirations?
Caroline Scheufele: I fight with my team because this time, for example, I was two days in Xi’an, an old capital of China where they had the first Emperor, and very close to the Terracotta Warriors. I said, “No matter what, I am going there. Please put these two hours into my programme.” And like always my team say, “Ah no, no but you have to do this…”. I mean, I was in China five times last year and I still haven’t seen the Great Wall.

Read more: Entrepreneur Adrian Cheng & landscape architect James Corner are redesigning Hong Kong

LUX: For the Cannes unique pieces is it really carte blanche? You create whatever you want and clients will buy them?
Caroline Scheufele: It’s pretty much carte blanche. We do have a theme, but otherwise anything goes.

LUX: Do you worry they won’t get sold?
Caroline Scheufele: No… we have a very nice group of clients who are very attached to the brand and they get to see them pre-Cannes. And then we may have other customers who want the pieces but we only make one of each.

Caroline sketching the palme d’or design

A Red Carpet Collection bracelet

LUX: China has gone from zero to biggest market in the world in the past 15 years. How have you established yourselves as the brand with the power that you have over there? Because they didn’t know Chopard previously.
Caroline Scheufele: We started with some agents and now we run China ourselves, we have our own office in Shanghai and another in Beijing and a big one in Hong Kong. First it was more about watches but now the Chinese have discovered branded jewellery. We have our Chinese ambassadresses and when they wear something, the next day it can be sold out. They are very celebrity-driven so it’s a lot about social media. China is also so big. When you go to a city like Beijing, it’s 22 million people, almost three times Switzerland. The dimensions are so different. Last time I met a very nice successful lady, who runs a family business, but they have 320,000 employees – that’s the whole city of Geneva!

LUX: You have to visit China in person, right?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, they appreciate meeting the family. They like the personal interaction. We had an exhibition at a luxury fair in Hainan, and we printed a book in Chinese. I gave it to a lady and the next morning she knew everything in the book, she had read the whole thing, which probably wouldn’t happen in America.

LUX: Is the perception of luxury changing in China?
Caroline Scheufele: Certain brands were very popular in the beginning when China opened up, and now certain people in the Chinese elite are going for smaller brands because it’s more chic or less widely seen. I met a very interesting professor from Beijing University who was giving some background on China, about how things change quickly. Within the past three years, 100 million people moved from poverty into the middle class but in the next six years it will be 300 million more. They set themselves goals and visions and they really do them.

Cate Blanchett wearing Chopard creations at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

LUX: Are consumers around the world less loyal to brands and is that a problem?
Caroline Scheufele: It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity. It’s also stimulating for us to be more innovative and more creative. And fast.

Read more: Parisian designer Jacques Garcia on creating spaces for seduction

LUX: Is speed an advantage because you’re a family company?
Caroline Scheufele: It’s an advantage because if something is urgent we can make things quickly because everything is in-house. Also we can stop something and say, ‘Now we make this engagement ring because their engagement is the day after tomorrow.’ Which in other companies is more complex. They have [to get] 10 people’s signatures before they even start the design, and we’ve already made the piece.

LUX: Have tastes changed around the world in the past few years?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, jewellery has become more democratic in a way, how women wear it. So, mixing colours, mixing shades of gold. With a beautiful diamond ring you can also wear it with jeans, you don’t need to have only the long dress to go with it. So I think yes, it has changed.

Lupita Nyong’o in Chopard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

LUX: I might have this completely wrong as an outsider, but it seems to me that jewellery used to be made by men and bought by men for women, and you’re a woman and your customers are women.
Caroline Scheufele: Women and men. Both. I sometimes call men and say, ‘Your wife’s birthday is coming up, I hope you didn’t forget it!’ But yes, previously jewellery was always something that you expected to be given as a present. Whereas certain women spend easily, they go shopping for designer clothes and they spend $10,000, $20,000 without a problem, but to buy yourself a beautiful diamond ring was not so much on the menu. I think now a lot of women are independent, they make their own money, they also buy their own jewellery, they might still be married but they sometimes go, ‘Ah, this is new?’ ‘Yes, I just bought it for myself.’ The behaviour of buying has changed, also with the advent of e-commerce.

Actress Celina Jade also wearing Chopard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival

Caroline with Jacky Ickx and her brother Karl- Friedrich Scheufele at Cannes

LUX: Is that going to become more and more important?
Caroline Scheufele: We have to work with both. I still like magazines, I’m not somebody who can read a book on iPhone. I still like the touch of paper, but maybe I’m not this very young generation… I still think there is a difference. A lot of people get information first online and then they go to the destination, physical shopping. So, the digital side is important. How you present your company. I think there will always be stores. But the stores today have to be much more of a lifestyle experience. The people who sell have to be better. It’s not good when the client knows more about diamonds than the salesperson.

A Red Carpet Collection necklace

LUX: Do clients care about your decision this year to only use Fairmined products?
Caroline Scheufele: I think it definitely appeals a lot to the younger generation because they are much more alert, today, about the planet, about sustainability and responsibility. The other day I had lunch with a friend and the son came in. We were talking about tennis shoes and he said, “Mummy no, no, no, you cannot buy this brand. It’s not good because they use kids.” And the mother said, “Ah.” The little one is six years old. So there is much more information and I think we all have to take care of the planet, we cannot just wait for the next generation to clean up.

LUX: You met the miner who mined the diamond you bought from Botswana, the Kalahari Diamond. Is the female empowerment element important for you?
Caroline Scheufele: It is important. And what was the beauty of the Kalahari is that a woman found it and it was on a Sunday. For me this was a unique experience, because I really followed everything from A to Z – from the mine to the cutting to the design. And then obviously we presented, we made the presentation in Paris and we invited the lady who found the stone to the presentation. And she had never been out of the village, so they had to get passports and visas, and she came with her son and then they went to Versailles. They were there one week, and in Versailles the son said, “Is this ice?” because it was the first time he had seen snow. So that, it was nice, it was actually nice.

LUX: Do you get inspiration for your next ideas in unlikely places?
Caroline Scheufele: Yes, I do. Once, we had rented a boat and we were very unlucky because it basically rained for the whole week, so what do you do? You watch movies, you read, you go and eat, you read more, you listen to music. And I was looking around, thinking, ‘How important the sun is!’ And your mood is down, and that’s when I had the idea of doing the Happy Sun collection. I designed it in the rain.

View Chopard’s collections at: chopard.com

More and more luxury brands are pledging their commitment to protecting our planet by valuing environmental concerns as highly as their customer’s expectations. Leading the way in the luxury yachting industry, Fraser announced a partnership with Plastic Oceans Foundation earlier this year to fight the pollution of our marine environment whilst announcing new, adventurous charter destinations where their clients can experience the wonders of our natural planet first hand. As part of our luxury leaders series, Millie Walton speaks to Fraser CEO Raphael Sauleau about the evolution of the yachting industry, ethical luxury and adventures into the Antarctic.

Raphael Sauleau

LUX: How has the luxury yacht industry changed in recent years?
Raphael Sauleau: The industry has changed and developed in a number of ways; in terms of charter, clients are often leaving bookings until the last minute in the hope of getting a last minute deal, however this often leads to disappointment as their chosen yacht may already be chartered out so they have to settle for something else that is still available. In terms of sales, buyers are becoming a lot more savvy and price driven, since the financial crisis they always want to push to get the lowest possible price, however sellers are also very aware of what they’ve paid for the yacht and invested into it and now set much more realistic asking prices so there is less room for negotiation.

In terms of the yachts themselves there is now an increasing trend to be more environmentally friendly, both in terms of the materials used in the construction and to be more self-sufficient which in turn allows for longer cruising periods and particularly to reach more remote destinations. Due to developments in technology, designers are also able to create yachts that use more glass to allow more natural light in and more sophisticated doors and retracting walls that allow more indoor/outdoor spaces.

We have also seen an increasing number of small companies setting up, 1 or 2 people offering charter or brokerage services. They have low running costs and will often undercut some of the more well established companies but of course they can’t offer the same level of expertise and experience that a company like Fraser can.

Imagine. Courtesy of Fraser.

LUX: What are the expectations of the modern luxury traveller and how does that differ from the past?
Raphael Sauleau: This obviously varies by client but we have noticed an increase in people wanting to have unique experiences, create memories that they will treasure forever. Many clients no longer want to go and sit on their yacht anchored off St Tropez and visit all the local beach clubs (although this is still very popular), instead an increasing number would prefer to do something different that they haven’t done before or is done by very few people. This could be exploring a unique destination such as Antarctica or a unique cultural experience such as a Va’a, a traditional Tahitian welcome from locals on their outrigger canoe, or even just enjoying an action packed holiday in a more traditional location but with lots of adrenalin pumping toys.
In terms of service, the main difference we have noticed is the food on board, clients are a lot more health conscious and have more specific dietary requirements such as vegan, gluten-free or even raw food.

Read next: Supermodel and restauranteur, Alicia Rountree on home cooking and dressing up

LUX: How do you balance innovation and tradition?
Raphael Sauleau: We are proud of our heritage and the experience and knowledge that this represents however we are always looking for new ways to provide a better service to our clients. This could be anything from launching our new website which is more adapted to modern day browsing on mobiles, to being the first company to use Augmented Reality to promote our yachts and show potential clients what it’s really like to be on board. However innovation is not just about the latest technology, we’re also working on efforts to help the industry develop, such as improving regulations that are more suitable to yachting and protecting the marine environment so that we can be sure that the industry is protected and continues to grow for years to come.

LUX: What are the most popular charter destinations nowadays?
Raphael Sauleau: The Med and the Caribbean are still by far the most popular choices for charterers however we are seeing a steady increase in charterers wanting to explore Asia and the South Pacific as well as an interest in the Antarctic. There are some terrific cruising grounds in these regions and as yachts are being built to do more long distance cruising and be more self-sustainable these regions are becoming more and more accessible.

Hanse Explorer. Courtesy Fraser.

LUX: You’ve said before that ethics are important for Fraser, what does that mean?
Raphael Sauleau: We’re working in an industry with one of the most highly valuable products on the market today, there are very few things that can come close to the value of a superyacht. Due to the large sums of money involved and the lack of transparency in some areas of the business you occasionally hear of people who are too focused on just closing a deal, at whatever cost, or taking their own cut on services or products that are outsourced. At Fraser we pride ourselves on always putting our clients’ interests first, we want to find the best yacht for them, be it for sale or charter and we won’t push them towards something just so that we can close a deal. We also don’t take any commission on services or products ordered through our management division, the original price of the supplier is what the client will pay.

LUX: Can luxury ever be truly adventurous?
Raphael Sauleau: Absolutely, I think if you speak to anyone that has been to Antarctica or a remote South Pacific island they will say that it was one of their greatest adventures. Admittedly you might have to go ashore to experience the real adrenalin pumping encounters with some of the local wildlife but it is still an adventure to be experienced before you return back to the comforts of your luxury yacht.

Paraffin. Courtesy Fraser.

LUX: How would you define an exclusive experience?
Raphael Sauleau: An exclusive experience is one that very few people can take part in; many people would say that owning or chartering a yacht is an exclusive experience and I would have to say I would agree. However it can also be an experience that money can’t buy, a special moment that you cannot buy off the shelf. We’ve organized for clients to be whisked by helicopter to the top of a glacier where they can enjoy a private 5* lunch with the most incredible views imaginable, or another very popular activity on our charters is being taken out by a local Greek fisherman in his little fishing boat on the most pristine clear waters to catch your dinner for the evening. Whatever it is, the overriding common factor in an exclusive experience is that it will create a unique memory that you and your family or friends will treasure for a life time.

Read next: Sushi Shop brings fine dining to takeaway casual

LUX: What’s next for Fraser?
Raphael Sauleau: We’re currently working on a number of new initiative such as our partnership with Plastic Oceans, many of us (including our clients) are realising that the oceans we cruise on are becoming increasingly damaged and we want to make sure that they are protected and there for us to enjoy for years to come. As we mentioned before we’re also working on some initiatives to help make the industry more transparent and regulated, we have a vast amount of knowledge gathered over the last seventy years and we want to make sure that we lead the way for the industry to grow and develop further. And of course there are some other projects and partnerships that we’re working on which we’ll be announcing over the coming months but unfortunately I can’t say anything further at this stage.

Mystic Tide. Courtesy Fraser.

LUX: How do you relax?
Raphael Sauleau: Aside from spending time with my wife and daughters I’m a keen sportsman and regularly compete in Triathlons and Ironman competitions. Training and taking part in these endurance races is a great way for me to switch off from the every day juggling act of managing one of the world’s leading yacht brokerages. However when I want to do something a little more relaxing there’s nothing better than picking up a good book and listening to some chilled out music

fraseryachts.com