HONG KONG — Boucheron has landed in Hong Kong at last.
The venerable French jewelry brand already has stores in Shanghai, Seoul, and Taipai, Taiwan, but waited until the right location became available before opening here. Its 1,290-square-foot store, located on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Central district, is surrounded by equally luxurious neighbors — Chloé, John Lobb and Salvatore Ferragamo all have flagships at the hotel’s lobby level, and jewelry brands Bulgari, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Chaumet are across the street.
Jean-Christophe Bedos, Boucheron’s president, admitted opening the store here after bowing in other Asian cities was unusual. “Hong Kong is usually the cornerstone of expansion into Asia. But we’ve been waiting for the right location for many years. When Mandarin Oriental decided to renovate and allocate more space to retail, we were excited. It’s the only location we wanted,” he said.
Jean-Pierre Hanki designed the interiors of the L-shape store; his previous work for the brand includes remodeling Boucheron’s flagship on Place Vendome in Paris. “We didn’t want an architect who specializes in store designs,” said Bedos of Hanki. “He really specializes in luxury homes and apartments — he knows what the private client wants.” Bedos said understanding such clientele was paramount as Boucheron’s objective is to make its customers feel at home.
The other criteria Hanki faced was more unusual in the world of luxury-brand retail: Every Boucheron store must have a unique look. “The store concept is opposite to our competitors’,” explained Bedos. “All these brands have the same store everywhere. We want the same feel. We have brand features and brand identity, but the furniture is not the same.”
That means that while color schemes and materials are similar at all Boucheron shops, the look varies. The store here boasts aubergine-colored walls, oak furnishings and brushed bronze display cases. The cases themselves feature rose-colored backgrounds and eggplant-toned leather props. The store also has a private viewing room that features a Chinese rosewood altar table decorated with an antique tea chest and a modern mannequin form.
“We want to adapt to our environment,” explained Bedos. “We want to feel Boucheron is in Hong Kong, not anywhere else.”
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Dimitri Kaczorowski, chief executive officer of Haussman Group, which operates the stores here and in Shanghai, declined to estimate sales for the new store, but stressed predicting sales at any jewelry store was difficult. “Because the effect of a high jewelry collection is very big, one sale could mean our sales are three times what we predicted,” he said, adding that customers here were already expressing interest in multimillion-dollar pieces.
Bedos noted the Hong Kong and Shanghai stores both carry many pieces from the haute jewelry collection. “These pieces should not be available only in Paris,” said Bedos. “The world is global now, and customers want the products at their doorstep.”
While the store here does carry fragrances, sunglasses, the Boucheron for Vertu jeweled mobile phone and the Boucheron for Alexander McQueen Novak handbag, Bedos said there was no plan to extend the Boucheron brand into other product categories. “Our objective is not to diversify. Boucheron is a mature brand. We look for ways to pay tribute to contemporary designers and creators,” he said.
Boucheron’s own designers created a white gold and diamond pendant and matching ring that pay tribute to the Chinese Year of the Dog just for the Hong Kong store opening. They are already selling well despite the price tags: 189,800 Hong Kong dollars, or $24,365, for the ring and 218,500 Hong Kong dollars, or $28,094, for the necklace.
Although the neighboring buildings boast major shops operated by Boucheron’s biggest competitors, Bedos thinks the company, which is part of the Gucci Group, has a place in Hong Kong and Asia, much like brands John Lobb, Bottega Veneta and Hermès.
“We’ve decided to expand, but we’re not in a rush. China is highly strategic for us — it’s the future of the world,” said Bedos. “We arrive as an alternative to most of the designer brands that are here. Boucheron is a little pearl, like Sleeping Beauty. It didn’t get [noticed] in the big luxury goods expansion of the last 20 to 30 years. It’s still very much a niche player: unspoiled and untouched.”