Obsessed with quality, uncompromising on sustainability and freedom. Frédéric Cumenal, president of Tiffany, in an interview with Corriere della Sera journalist Paola Pollo, on the occasion of the big party last Thursday for the inauguration of the new Parisian boutique on the Champs-Elysées, tells how he sees luxury in jewelry today, starting from a great legacy of the past, the famous 128-carat yellow diamond on display until July. And why Tiffany is so different from European fashion houses.
Here is the interview with Corriere
A Holly today? But women want to be blonde or brunette, wearing an evening dress or sneakers and representing them with an icon would not be modern. No, a modern Audrey Hepburn does not exist». Condemned to live in myth, then, but not at breakfast, of course. Thus spoke Tiffany mega-president Frédéric Cumenal, 55, French from the South (“Oui, je suis bascò”) who after three years at the helm of the New York maison has decided to conquer Europe (is it possible? “But they don’t know all of our history here”) by focusing on the family jewels. Far from being the mother of the Gracchi: for the opening of the new boutique on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, Cumenal wanted the “mythical” yellow diamond, today mounted on a necklace of brilliants for a total of 238 carats when the legend alone counts 128 and for a seven-carat hazelnut/solitaire you need one million five hundred thousand and some euros. Five private planes – to confuse, in case anyone had got strange ideas in their head – and guards and codes to decipher and bizarre emails to bring that goodness to Paris. And one doesn’t know whether to marvel at the obelisk of Ramses III lit up in aquamarine in the Place de la Concorde, at the Arc de Triomphe opened for the first time at night for a party, or at the anecdotes whispered among the guests at the inauguration, about a jewel that only two women in the world have worn: Audrey/Holly, of course, and a lady of New York high society who borrowed it for a party.
Monsieur Cumenal, but what is luxury in jewelry today?
«It is no different from luxury in general: quality, first of all. An obsession for us. Let’s take the yellow diamond for example: try to imagine what that gemologist felt when he found himself holding that 287-carat stone in his hands (in 1871 and right in Paris, ed.) and decided to give up more than 150 carats to achieve almost absolute purity with the cut. Is there another dimension of luxury possible?
Is democratic luxury more modern (which has also been your philosophy) or exclusive luxury?
«We have never compared ourselves to the great European luxury houses. And there is an explanation. Traditional luxury is exclusive and excluding. Always has been. And if I think of old Europe I say religion and aristocracy: nothing has been more exclusive than these two classes. Tiffany’s history, on the other hand, is the history of New York, a land where everyone and everything mixes or can mix and where the doors are always open, even those of a jewelry store. This difference is fundamental to understanding the impossibility of answering the question. I’m not saying that this is better and that is worse, though».
A Frenchman in New York.
«New York is not the United States, but all the cities in the world. And the countries. And a crossroads of breathable energy. I bring my vision which is that of having discovered an incomparable heritage that I want, now, to make known to others. It is the sense of history to be passed down that we Europeans have in our DNA. This is why I wanted this strong showcase in Paris, where 100 million visitors pass through every year”.
When you think of the history that Europe doesn’t know, do you mean high jewelry and pieces like the yellow diamond?
“To tell the truth, only in Italy are we perceived as a brand that is above all accessible jewelry. A strange case”.
Sustainability and civil responsibility: is it easy to carry them forward?
“Yes, if it’s part of your culture: we oppose the opening of mines in Alaska, wild exploitation, we don’t buy stones in countries with dictatorial regimes and we invest in liberal companies. There is a charter that regulates these things but it’s not enough for us. We have our agents who monitor. Are we penalized compared to the competition? Never mind. The world must move forward tomorrow too”.
You haven’t used coral for years because it is in extinction, more alarms?
“Enough ivory. We recently launched a campaign that even President Obama supported. Our Chinese customers don’t like this battle? It doesn’t matter. Ivory was a 19th century story, in the 21st we can do without it”. Paola Pollo
