The New Luxury Leaders
From the Internet to the cosmetics counter and from Kuwait City to Kansas City, 15 ambitious innovators are redefining the high life
Fall 2004 Style & Design
Chanel's Major Merchant
Maureen Chiquet
Claim to fame: On Oct. 1, Chiquet, 41, takes over as president
and chief operating officer of Chanel Inc. from Arie Kopelman,
who is retiring after 18 years.
Defining moment: After a stint peddling L'Oreal hair color to
supermarkets in France, Chiquet spent 15 years at Gap Inc. She
helped develop the Old Navy division before being named president
of Banana Republic. But she has had zero experience in luxury
goods.
Luxury quotient: Chanel's core businesses in the U.S. look
strong, but hot brands cool. Chiquet's merchandising savvy should
help keep the 94-year-old brand evergreen.
Bottler of Miracles
Olivia Chantecaille
Claim to fame: As creative director of her family-owned cosmetics
business, she can convince a soap-and-water minimalist that $290
face cream is a reasonable—even a requisite—purchase.
Defining moment: Chantecaille, 31, co-founded the company in 1997
with her mother Sylvie, the brains behind Estee Lauder's
groundbreaking Prescriptives brand.
Luxury quotient: A near religious devotion to exotic ingredients
has helped propel the brand. The success of its $290 lifting
cream more than doubled the company's skin-care sales—making it
one of the few makeup lines to thrive in that competitive market.
Chic Shoemaker
Diego Della Valle
Claim to fame: He took his family's century-old shoe factory in
the Marche region of Italy and turned it into a leading luxury
leather-goods brand with $466 million in sales last year.
Defining moment: Della Valle started Tod's in 1978 after spotting
a photo of the Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli wearing soft
driving shoes—leading to the brainstorm that casual shoes could
be chic.
Luxury quotient: In November 2000, Tod's S.P.A.—which also
includes Hogan, a lower-priced line of accessories, and the
sportswear brand Fay—was entered on the Milan stock exchange.
But Della Valle's current triumph is his football team,
Fiorentina. Maybe a line of soccer shoes is next.
King of Bling
Sean Combs
Claim to fame: Entrepreneurial jack-of-all-trades P. Diddy is a
Grammy-winning music producer—performer, CEO of the fashion
label Sean John and an investor in the young couturier Zac Posen.
He is also an actor, a marathoner and a political cheerleader.
Defining moment: Combs staked his claim as a marketing mastermind
with the buzz generated by his 28th-birthday bash and its allstar
videotaped invite.
Luxury quotient: He has built an image—and an industry—around
his flinging of bling. Last year he designed an SUV with six TV
screens, and his date this past July 4 was an original copy of
the Declaration of Independence.
Haute E-tailer
Natalie Massenet
Claim to fame: Anyone who has doubts about luxury fashion selling
online has yet to meet Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter.com.
Based in London, the high-end shopping website gets about 5.5
million page views a month.
Defining moment: A former fashion-magazine editor, Massenet, 39,
came up with the idea for the company when she couldn't find
designer collections online. Net-a-Porter.com launched four years
ago with just eight employees.
Luxury quotient: Today there is a staff of 100, and sales, which
totaled $11.7 million in 2003, have been doubling every year. The
company's specialty is hard-to-find fashion musts. (Waiting lists
start as soon as the runway shows end.) Massenet has a simple
explanation for her success: "We sell the must-haves, not the
misses."
Bergdorf's Good Man
Jim Gold
Claim to fame: At just 40 years old, Gold has climbed company
ranks from his first job out of Harvard Business School—manager
of a Trim-a-Tree shop—to become CEO of New York City's luxury
retailer Bergdorf Goodman.
Defining moment: As a vice president at Neiman Marcus, Gold
developed a business plan for the company's new clearance stores
that upped revenues from $20 million to $80 million in three
years.
Luxury quotient: With hopes of positioning Bergdorf's as a brand
that cuts across generational lines, Gold is overseeing a
top-to-bottom renovation of the Fifth Avenue emporium, and this
month he launches the company's first fully transactional
website.
Crystal Queen
Nadja Swarovski
Claim to fame: As head of communications and a fifth-generation
Swarovski, Nadja, 34, embodies the freshly glamorous image of the
family-run Austrian crystal business.
Defining moment: Before joining Swarovski, Nadja worked for an
art gallery and in public relations in New York City. "But
crystals have always been inherently part of my life," she says.
Luxury quotient: She has focused on shedding the brand's Liberace
image. This fall Swarovski is exhibiting "Rocks on the Runway"—a
show featuring its work with jewelers like Fiona Knapp and
Danilo. Arrivederci, Liberace.
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