How Chopard Seizes the Red Carpet Spotlight in Cannes

CANNES – This week, Bella Hadid and Sienna Miller seized the highlight in Cannes — with crimson carpet appearances on the premieres of “The Apprentice” and “Horizon: An American Saga” that garnered as a lot on-line consideration because the movies themselves. Hadid wore a nipple-bearing Saint Laurent costume, whereas Miller attracted headlines for bringing her 11-year-old daughter as her date on the pageant stairs.

Hadid and Miller have been additionally notably sporting jewels by Chopard, the Geneva-based maison which has lengthy been synonymous with the Cannes Movie Competition. The Geneva-based home has been Cannes’ official companion for 27 years and, along with crafting the pageant’s Palme d’Or trophy, the occasion is vital for Chopard’s enterprise.

A privately-owned Swiss firm, Chopard is managed by siblings Caroline and Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, who oversee jewelry and watches respectively. The corporate, which owns its personal workshops, doesn’t report monetary figures. However Ms. Scheufele says that the corporate is sort of balanced between its two companies, with round 55 p.c of income coming from watches and 45 p.c from jewelry respectively (whereas jewelry makes up the next share of volumes).

Erwan Rambourg, international head of client and retail analysis at HSBC, estimates Chopard’s complete gross sales at round €1 billion. He cites Chopard’s publicity to each watches and jewelry as a key benefit over friends.

Cartier is the one different maison with such an equal break up, he says. In the meantime, Chopard’s hyperlink to Cannes is “a uncommon asset.”

“Being related to one of the prestigious occasions in leisure full-stop is troublesome to duplicate,” Rambourg says. “Luxurious consumption is about escapism. Nobody wants a bit of jewelry – it’s all about escapism and aspiration. And the leisure and cinema industries are about escapism.”

Cannes’ distinctive protection of world celebrities additionally presents most impression: Sunday’s screening of “Horizon” additionally welcomed Michelle Yeoh alongside Kevin Costner. A couple of hours earlier, the identical crimson carpet had hosted the screening for “Feng Liu Yi Dai (Caught by the Tides),” by Golden Lion-winning Chinese language director Jia Zhang-Ke.

Symbiotic Partnerships

Collaboration between manufacturers and cinema goes into overdrive in the course of the pageant with stars leveraging their vogue and jewelry partnerships to garner most visibility for his or her initiatives. In the meantime, manufacturers get the possibility to position early bets on hit movies and rising stars months forward of the awards cycle.

“The extra unbelievable somebody appears, the extra seemingly they’re to be on the entrance cowl of The Occasions of London or The Occasions in New York, which is in the end actually good in serving to to advertise that movie world wide,” says Jonathan Sanders, a London-based branding agent for skills together with movie stars.

Cannes, he says, is the place the sport is raised. “It’s actually like a love story the place the facility of movie and vogue collide.”

The glitzy efforts add up: Cannes Competition activations final 12 months generated on-line buzz for manufacturers with an estimated worth of $1.3 billion, in response to vogue knowledge consultancy Launchmetrics.

No surprise that Chopard forges ties with names linked to the pageant, making certain common protection over the 12-day interval. This 12 months’s jury president Greta Gerwig, jury member Eva Inexperienced and the Cannes Movie Competition’s president Iris Knobloch have usually worn Chopard.

Chopard’s media placements ranked the very best amongst jewelry gamers, valued by Launchmetrics at $37.3 million; the home was additionally the one jewelry pure-player among the many pageant’s top-five most seen manufacturers general.

Past the Competition Steps

And along with dressing celebrities each day of the pageant, Chopard enhances the crimson carpet with its personal high-profile occasions.

Chopard holds court docket all through the pageant on the rooftop of the Hôtel Martinez, positioned proper on the well-known Croisette seashore avenue. With wrap-around views of the Côte d’Azur, it’s the best location to host events, press and celebrities in addition to VIP shoppers.

The model’s “Trophée Chopard” gala honours up-and-coming expertise, and is presided over every year by a extra established Hollywood determine. This 12 months the younger skills’ “godmother” was actress Demi Moore — who for the primary time has a movie on the pageant, and who has worn Chopard at a bunch of appearances from crimson carpets to press calls.

Every Could, Chopard additionally unveils its newest excessive jewelry assortment (fittingly known as its Crimson Carpet vary). This 12 months, the model invested much more in spotlighting the unique vary by staging a runway present for the launch, held Tuesday on the Resort du Cap-Eden-Roc.

The 77-piece, fairytale-themed outing referred to as “Contes de Fées” options quirky, playful designs like a mushroom-shaped ring set with white, orange, cognac and brown diamonds, and a pair of yellow diamond earrings that the actress Eva Inexperienced wore on the crimson carpet final week.

The hyperlink to high celebrities can enhance the enchantment of excessive jewelry items for some prospects. “There are shoppers that love that it was worn by someone [famous],” says Ms. Scheufele. “It’s occurred earlier than {that a} consumer will go into the New York boutique with a press cut-out of Julia Roberts sporting Chopard, and need that precise necklace. They usually weren’t even at Cannes.”

Different collectors come to fête the gathering of top-end items in Cannes, however choose to order jewels solely for themselves. “They are saying, ‘I don’t need it to be worn, even when by an vital particular person’,” explains Ms. Scheufele.

Cash-Can’t-Purchase Entry

Internet hosting shoppers in Cannes – the place they stroll the crimson carpet alongside stars and attend world premieres – presents a novel, money-can’t-buy expertise. Occasions like Chopard’s “Crimson Carpet” assortment make the pageant not only a place for driving picture, however direct gross sales.

“Cannes is a really particular ambiance and it positively places you in one other temper,” says Mr. Scheufele, who additionally showcases Chopard watches throughout Cannes (Chris Hemsworth wore a gem-encrusted Alpine Eagle 41 Frozen for final week’s premiere of “Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga”). “Inspiration, the world of cinema that surrounds you, the sort of vibrant set of individuals and the entire ambiance while you arrive in Cannes – all that transports you to a different world,” he added.

Scheufele says the model’s excessive jewelry shoppers are more and more youthful – as younger as 25 – with Asia particularly buoyant. Shoppers are additionally extra knowledgeable than ever, about high quality, provenance and sustainability – the latter of which ought to be excellent news for Chopard, which was an early mover in bettering traceability and moral sourcing for gold.

Ladies, provides Ms. Scheufele, are additionally self-purchasing greater than ever. “They prefer to have their very own diamonds – it doesn’t want to come back from the fiancée or the daddy,” she says. “The shoppers need to say: ‘I purchased this with my very own cash’.”

Chopard employs over 50 craftspeople devoted solely to excessive jewelry, permitting it to work intently with collectors on customized items, or with movie stars and stylists on particular initiatives (the home has even ‘co-designed’ excessive jewelry units with the likes of Julia Roberts). “We’re a household enterprise and never from a giant group,” says Ms. Scheufele. “We go extra into the little particulars – we hustle and bustle.”

With two days to go earlier than Saturday’s Closing Ceremony, Chopard stays onerous at work with stylists and expertise to verify it out-sparkles friends as much as the pageant’s remaining bash.

Cartier, Piaget, Boucheron, Chaumet and Messika have additionally ramped up efforts to highlight their excessive jewelry creations on the pageant lately. However to this point that’s solely seen Chopard double down on defending its Cannes territory. As Rambourg says: “You’d be hell bent on protecting that, as a result of it’s an exceptional asset.”