A Conversation with Hélène Poulit-Duquesne, the CEO of Boucheron

In 2015, Hélène Poulit-Duquesne was appointed as CEO at Boucheron and she has continued to honor Frédéric Boucheron’s legacy since then. Being the first to open on Place Vendôme, the high jewelry house has been known to stay true to their historic roots, but they also display creativity and innovation through their many collections.

Hélène Poulit-Duquesne sits down with 3oud.com for an interview and talks about what the future holds for Boucheron and her thoughts on Boucheron’s Middle Eastern clients

1. Describe the Boucheron client in three words.

Self-confident, passionate and genuine.

2. If you had to pick your favorite collection from Boucheron, what would it be? And why?

Quatre, definitely! Because for me it’s iconic, it’s telling the first story of Boucheron, you can wear it pretty much every day! I love a lot of Boucheron items but I don’t wear them every day, but Quatre is really a part of my life.

3. What plans do you have for Boucheron for the future?

We have a lot of plans. We are growing a lot in Asia, because it’s been a top priority. We are also developing a lot in mature market like Kuwait and all the Middle Eastern countries, and even in Japan where we entered the country in the 70’s. Then the next big El Dorado for the company will be the US, because we don’t have a real business there yet. Our presence is only through a business partner with a small corner, so we don’t have a retail internal footprint in the US at all. This is going to be our next big thing.

We still have a big part of the world to get in.

4. What collection would you want to relaunch soon?

To relaunch, it would definitely be Quatre, because next year we will celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Quatre because it was created in 2004. So, it will be the right time to tell the whole world that it’s our icon.

5. How do you manage between being authentic to Boucheron’s history while still being creative and relevant to the market?

It’s very easy for us. It’s kind of a duty mission to have Boucheron still be innovative in the present. The second thing is that Claire Choisne, the Creative Director at Boucheron, and myself are obsessed by progress innovation and pushing the boundaries and hardly shaking the market. So, yes, we are the right person in the right place and time to still keep Boucheron innovative and super creative. The reason why it’s really not difficult for us to stay true to the heritage, is that we also try to start from what we have to begin the thinking then we’ll push the boundaries. And each time we are doing something extravagant, super innovative or creative, we would ask ourselves: would Frederic Boucheron be proud of us? And if the answer is yes, we will simply do it.

6. What’s the difference between the French woman and the Middle Eastern woman in your field? Do you see any differences and what are they?

I don’t see much of a difference. One of the differences might be in the way they buy. For instance, end of September is very strong in the Middle East, so the majority of the deliveries would be in the 3^rd quarter.  This is not the case in France where the majority of the sales are done during the 4^th quarter. Also, I always say I think this region is where we have the best image and the closest one to Boucheron, the clients in all the Middle East countries really understand what Boucheron is, which is not the case for example in Japan, where we have a very different image compared to the true image of Boucheron in France. So, in a way I feel like the Middle Eastern people are close to the French people in the way they understand Boucheron. I think this is maybe because you have emotional women in the middle east and we are at Boucheron also very emotional and very genuine and true to our art. We have very big hearts, and this is close to the Middle East I think.