What is the appeal of Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry in Japan?
One of the things we saw at the exhibition was how enchanting the pieces and the stories linked to them were to our Japanese visitors. Something particular to Japan is the level of refinement, education and demand among our customers, which is wonderful for a maison like us. I think the love of creativity or craftsmanship is in the DNA of our Japanese customers. It means something for them. How are you coping with the recession? Even in a recession, people need lighthouses to brighten their lives. That’s the role we want to play. When you don’t make a trade-off in quality of products or service, then people know it and they come in for an experience. Women like to treat themselves to something nice. It may be a trip or a piece of jewelry. An interesting trend we see is more women buying for themselves in Japan and other countries as well. This is a mature market and most of our customers know Van Cleef & Arpels very well and expect a lot from us. We tend to think of our customers as be
