“Fashion houses create watch and jewelry lines. I do the complete opposite,” says Caroline Scheufele with a broad smile. The co-president and artistic director of Chopard welcomes us at the headquarters of the Swiss jewelry brand in Meyrin, not far from Geneva, on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival. After launching his first haute couture collection on the Croisette in 2023, he is preparing to do it again with a new show on May 21 at the Hôtel Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes. After last year's good reception, the adventure of this line, called Caroline's Couture, continues with a second, larger collection, enriched with accessories and some masculine silhouettes. This will be followed by pop-ups and a possible expansion into ready-to-wear.
For twenty-seven years, the jeweler has been one of the main sponsors of the prestigious film festival. He redesigned the Palme d'Or and has been producing it ever since. In 2001, he even created the Chopard trophy, awarded to the festival's most promising young actors, which has become one of the festival's most popular events. Caroline Scheufele takes advantage of this event, “the most publicized on the planet after the Olympic Games and the World Cup,” as she points out, to present the collections of her high jewelry line Red Carpet in a grand event, through a parade of fashion.
For this show, haute couture outfits from big brands such as Elie Saab, Dolce & Gabbana, Zuhair Murad and others were used. “But these dresses are often already full of precious decorations, where the jewels are drowned out. So I began to imagine less rich models at the top and with fair necklines to better highlight my decorations,” says the volcanic. She is the creative soul behind the Swiss fashion house's diversification strategy. It was she who launched the jewelry business, which today represents 50% of sales, then the perfumes under license from the Italian company Give Back Beauty, the glasses with De Rigo and created the network of directly managed boutiques.
Your idea for fashion? Create your own haute couture line to enhance the value of your jewelry creations. The project became a reality thanks to contact with Maximiliano Modesti, a close collaborator of the company who has been developing embroidery workshops in India for more than a quarter of a century through 2M Ateliers in Mumbai, supplying some of the main fashion houses in the world. world. Then, by hiring Fridtjov Linde as design director, who has worked with Christian Lacroix and numerous embroiderers, among others.
Transposing jewelry experience to haute couture
With this very high-end clothing line, Chopard not only creates the best outfits to sublimate its jewelry, but also transfers the immense experience of its jeweler artisans to haute couture. This is illustrated by the dresses in this new collection, such as this long strapless tube in aqua green color entirely embroidered with flowers and small stones. A mini dress is covered in crystals like water droplets. Some models take up the emblematic colors or motifs of Chopard jewelry, such as hearts or ice cubes, reproduced, for example, in a black guipure fabric bordered with small Japanese tubes and sequins. Others required between 800 and 1,000 hours of embroidery.
This precision and embellishment is reflected in the details, in the often three-dimensional textures, and in the various embroidery techniques. For this reason, the jeweler has turned to the best suppliers and specialists in sewing techniques. In India, with 2M Ateliers. In Switzerland, with Jacob Schlaepfer, the historic embroiderer from St Gallen. And since this year we have been working in China with Miao artisans from the province of Guizhou, in the southwest of the country, who have created embroidered motifs of birds and butterflies for the new collection using ultra-fine silk threads that trap light. Applied in the shape of a cloud on a dress, they are combined with diamond butterfly brooches of the same color.
In Paris, in what Caroline Scheufele calls “a pocket workshop”, the models are designed and developed by Fridtjov Linde and an assistant. The prototypes and patterns are then made in a sewing workshop in the Saint-Denis neighborhood, “on canvas, to avoid waste.” Most of the fabrics are developed exclusively for Chopard by silk manufacturer Comes Gentili Mosconi, while the tweed is supplied by wool manufacturer Reggiani in Piedmont. The final design was entrusted to Italian couturier Mario Borean, who has more than 40 years of experience in the haute couture industry and whose company is based in Chions, in the Veneto region. The shoes are made by Casadei. The house also wanted to work with knitwear and turned to a hosiery company in Vicenza, also in the Veneto region, to make a knit covering that could be embroidered.
For its second collection, Caroline's Couture has turned to two new partners. Irish milliner Philip Treacy will create six hats, while Parisian fashion house Cifonelli will present the men's world with five beaded-embroidered tuxedo silhouettes. “We have always produced cufflinks and tuxedo buttons. But now more and more men ask us for jewelry, especially brooches. Without a doubt, there is a place for them in jewelry,” says the artistic director of Chopard, which attracts the most of her inspiration for her haute couture collections in her jewelry creations.
“There is an available market”
“Every year I choose a theme. After last year's art, the theme of this new collection is fairy tales, with light, fairy-tale fabrics and fun motifs like the prince or the crowned frog,” she smiles, still surprised for last year's success. “The day after the first show, a queue began to form around the models that were on display in the showroom, where we were presenting our Red Carpet jewelry collection. We were totally overwhelmed! It didn't take long for the first orders to arrive. A few months Later, the American fashion chain Saks even opened a pop-up store in Palm Beach, with a selection of dresses. “We were attracted to a new clientele that didn't know Chopard,” says Caroline Scheufele.
This haute couture line has opened a completely new world for the jewelry brand, which is in the process of organizing itself to better structure this activity, from order management to marketing with specialized sellers, also investing in a real workshop in Paris. “It's a good business,” he says. In terms of image, it's very important, but not only that. If we stay small, it can be profitable. There is a market for it, especially in the Middle East and India.”
Some women, for example, now order custom dresses based on the colors of their finest. “It is an added experience for fine jewelry clients,” says the entrepreneur, who has intensified initiatives around her haute couture project, taking advantage of various social gatherings, such as the event organized for the Oscars, or organizing mini-shows in its various branches. Even in her first five-star hotel, '1 Place Vendôme', located as her name indicates in the heart of Parisian luxury, where her boutique is also located. Opened at the end of 2023 after six years of renovation, it has fifteen rooms, including ten suites.
Caroline's Couture collection has grown from its original 55 looks to 77 this year, with a new silhouette added each year, corresponding to the Cannes Film Festival years. The line not only focuses on glamorous evening dresses, but also offers pieces that are easier to wear and combinable with everyday wardrobe, such as silk or taffeta blouses, short dresses adorned with feathers, skirts decorated with silver fringes, pants, jacquard . Suits and, of course, tuxedos. Prices range between €5,000 and €50,000.
Next winter a new temporary store is planned in Switzerland, in the exclusive tourist town of Gstaad. At the same time, the brand plans to collaborate with several prestigious department stores “to work with two or three strategic points around the world.” Another extension of the couture project “consists of selecting about fifteen couture looks and seeing how they can be reinterpreted as ready-to-wear in a small range of sizes,” explains design director Fridtjov Linde. “We would also like to develop bags,” he concludes.
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