Hélène D'Auriac from Ba&sh: “We all strive to create an It bag”

Ba&sh highlighted its range of bags at bus stops, at Paris metro exits and in magazines in September to mark the launch of its Youyou model. It is a category that is booming in French premium fashion and is getting stronger year after year. Having worked at Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and, most recently, Chloé, Hélène D'Auriac now oversees the growing accessories range of the brand founded by Barbara Boccara and Sharon Krief in 2003. For FashionNetwork.com, she analyzes this market and describes her approach to further expanding this offering.

FashionNetwork.com: In September you launched the Youyou bag, with a highly visible campaign headed by Abby Champion, particularly on the façade of the Galeries Lafayette.

Helena D'Auriac: The Youyou resonated immediately. It was a surprise, because we were positioning the bag slightly above our basic range, which is around 395 euros. This is a 450 euro bag. In the last two years, we have had two major and successful launches.

FNW: In other words?

HDA: Last year, the June Tote took off from the beginning. We were managing stock replenishment every week, with around twenty replenishments to keep up with demand. Then this year with Youyou, it was a nice surprise to be able to get into this price range. But it also responds to the crisis of confidence that the luxury industry is experiencing. Consumers are looking for good value for money, while prices have risen in some houses that have become somewhat detached from the consumer. They have a good eye and understand sourcing and materials… This allowed us to capture an audience, because I think we are starting to gain recognition in the leather goods sector for our experience. This amplified our success.

FNW: You are very familiar with the high-end segment. Before joining Ba&sh seven years ago, he worked in luxury homes. What was the challenge of moving to a premium ready-to-wear brand?

HDA: I am a specialist in luxury accessories. When Ba&sh hired me, L Catterton was a shareholder. So a luxury culture already existed, but this category had not yet been developed or amplified. Throughout my career, I have seen some punch bags come and go. At Ba&sh we had to provide luxury knowledge, new suppliers, different methods and designers. This meant instilling a culture of accessories within a house that was culturally very ready-to-wear.

FNW: What difference did integrating these skills make?

HDA: It allowed us to work on a premium offering, developed in Europe with Italian leathers, and incorporate responsible standards such as Leather Working Group label. Barbara and Sharon gave me a lot of freedom in this new creative territory for them. It was a strong vote of confidence, since the deadlines, methods and sourcing are completely different. I delved into the DNA of the house to understand its signatures, codes, materials, craftsmanship and casual spirit, to identify everything that constitutes the Ba&sh identity and apply it particularly to this new category of bags.

They already had products that were starting to emerge, but the goal was to really develop the leather goods category. I think one of the reasons for our success is that we have done it authentically, offering a distinctly luxurious range with a very competitive value for money proposition. We are in the affordable luxury segment and our goal was to offer very good quality at a fifth or even a tenth of the competition's prices. The category took off immediately. Since my arrival seven years ago, we have seen double-digit growth in this category each year.

FNW: With the strong momentum of launches over the past two years, is there a recipe for creating a successful bag?

HDA: That's the question we all ask ourselves. How do you create a punch bag? I think the first step is to work on the design, looking for something quite timeless. The second point is to be coherent in your message, aligning the proposal with marketing, marketing and digital, and then stay the course instead of calling everything into question as soon as there is a fluctuation in sales. We're seeing this in luxury, with a major return to icons.

FNW: And then how is it used? How does success extend to different products?

HDA: Once we have a bestsellerThe first thing is to continue expanding the choice of materials and details of the firm. Leather goods are growing very strongly and we are seeing strong progress in all accessories, especially jewelry. We have placed the same emphasis on know-how, using recycled silver and truly original design, which has generated extremely strong growth. But getting back to the topic, the question after the punch bag It's how to turn it into an icon.

“Brands that have managed to turn their leather goods into icons have an advantage when it comes to resisting crises.”

FNW: What's the difference?

HDA: It is not necessarily a question of volumes. In our sector, a stock market that lasts more than a year is already a punch bag. For luxury brands, the great icons are the bags that have been around for 20, 30, sometimes 40 years. In the case of accessible luxury, the deadlines are a little shorter. So I would say that a bag becomes iconic when it has been on the market for between three and five years. But we want to achieve the same feat as some premium brands from the 80s and 90s, which have had icons for more than 20 years. I think this is also important, because the brands that have managed to turn their leather goods into icons have had an extra advantage to resist the successive crises in the sector.

FNW: For the last month, you've been promoting a new version of the June Tote. It's not really a new bag…

HDA: It has the same shape but in a smaller format. This increases the visibility of the model and in this spirit we are working on other formats. We are advancing in variations of materials and colors, as well as in more image elements such as embroidery, rhinestones or fringes, which reflect the DNA of the brand, whose proposals will be released in January. The interesting thing is that in a small format the clientele is usually younger and with the work on the details we target more sophisticated clients. These different versions allow us to build a common thread around the model.

FNW: In concrete terms, how many bags do you currently have? Are they all meant to be active in the market at the same time?

HDA: We are careful not to dilute our messages so as not to lose momentum on the key product. We have three main product families, which come in different formats, details and colors. We have the June Tote, launched a year ago. Youyou, launched in September, will appeal to our ready-to-wear customers. We have the Swing, which is a bag with fringes and is quite seasonal but matches our aesthetic. And then we have a fourth family of purely seasonal products that last six months and respond precisely to seasonal trends, catering to our own fashionable and often a fairly young clientele. But the majority of sales are generated by our first two proposals. This can be explained by the fact that among consumers there is a strong notion of investment in purchasing a bag, and they turn to the most iconic models. The very good surprise is that we have two models that are working very well at the same time.

A new stage in consumption

FNW: But you are not the only ones performing well in this category. How do you explain this dynamic?

HDA: For our part, the category represents 11% of sales and we aim to reach 15% in three years. We are really on a stepping stone and I think it is a strength to have a high level of creativity with beautiful materials and finishes. I also believe that we are benefiting from the rise of “new luxury brands”, which offer a very high range with a great retail experience but with the price positioning of the historical luxury brands. We are entering a new phase in which consumers will look for very high quality, but will pay close attention to price. We have opted for European production and have the retail experience our customers expect; They are now looking to accessible luxury brands for creativity that was previously exclusive to luxury.

FNW: You talked about a common thread that brings models to life for consumers. How is this done?

HDA: As for accessories, there are a number of important moments. we just passed back to schoolwith all September issues focusing on accessories. It is a time to launch new products, as we did with Youyou. The second important moment, which is the annual sales peak, arrives in December. We can double our sales compared to other months. So we are going to have different strategies: new products at the beginning of the season and focusing on the best sellers in December, with the launch of new colors and materials. This involves activations, like a pop-up at Galeries Lafayette this month; We work with influencers who love the brand and we are launching an image campaign that I think will be quite striking at the end of the year. These different approaches allow us to attract different profiles. And we've discovered, for example, that 40% of June Tote customers are new and 25% are under 35 years old. This also allows us to reach a younger clientele.

FNW: Thanks to this growth, are you planning any launches for 2026?

HDA: We are trying to slow down a little. But we have many ideas and projects. We see potential around the brand identity, for example with an evening offer, but also with textile bags at a more accessible price. But we really need to present a differentiated offer. We also see that our know-how in jewelry can be used in a range of sandals or, also, for the evening. Ba&sh is also in the process of becoming a true lifestyle brand, exploring an innovative approach to wellness. In this case, we work with our ready-to-wear teams to offer complete silhouettes for yoga retreats, for example. We also do it with a Coachella-themed offer, with handbags to go to festivals. It's exciting because we are working on several new territories in parallel.