Interview with Bénédicte Epinay
Interview Bénédicte Epinay
By Katia Kulawick-Assante
How did the Les De(ux) mains du luxe trade show come about?
Every year, I ask the companies that are part of the Comité Colbert what their concerns are. In 2022, HR issues came out on top, with a major problem in recruiting artisans. The context: the end of lockdown, booming sales and a need for production, but companies are struggling to find artisans, recruit them and retain them. I discovered that the average age in workshops is around 55, and that very soon, with retirements, team renewal will become a problem. What’s more, it’s difficult to attract young people to these professions, unlike adults looking to change careers, especially in the wake of Covid, because they find meaning in making things with their hands. So we are working on the idea of an event focused on careers in manual trades. We have therefore created ‘Les De(ux) mains du luxe’ (The Two Hands of Luxury), a play on words on the word ‘demain’ (tomorrow).
The first editions were held at Station F – why this choice?
I was keen on this start-up campus – the largest in the world – to highlight a stark contrast: placing workbenches for trades that are supposedly a thing of the past in a place where the future is being conceived. At the Comité Colbert, our motto is ‘luxury is the oldest sector of the future’, because even if it has one foot in the past, these are truly the trades of tomorrow. The success was immediate because visitors discovered the stands of major French houses – whose advertisements they see in magazines – and could sit down at a table at Chanel and embroider, make a small piece of leatherwork at Hermès, with the satisfaction of doing something with their hands, meeting the artisans and HR managers, and seeing the schools that train people in these crafts. It’s very simple and very concrete. We added a series of conferences with masterclasses by artisans and HR managers. We doubled the number of visitors in 2023. And then, we didn’t want to be perceived as a purely Parisian event, so we replicated the idea in the provinces in 2024 with an event in Lyon – in partnership with the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, for their centenary – and one in Cholet, linked to the Carrefour de l’Orientation, with 15,000 visitors in two and a half days.
What will happen for the 2025 edition, which will be held from 2 to 5 October?
The show is returning to Paris, for the first time at the Grand Palais, for a highlight because we will be welcoming 32 major houses, among the most beautiful – Dior Couture, Dior Parfums, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, YSL Beauté, Guerlain, JPG, Céline, Baccarat, Christofle, Saint-Louis… Whatever people say, it is in Paris that luxury goods are conceived and created, even if they are sometimes manufactured elsewhere. It will be like a giant recreational workshop where you can make something with your own two hands. It’s a wonderful experience for secondary school pupils, our core target audience for the first two days, because secondary school pupils now have a ‘career path’ on their agenda and teachers can add ‘Les De(ux) mains du luxe’ to their half-day programme. We send schools an activity kit – maths, history, etc. – to do in preparation for their visit. I didn’t want a student fair where you pick up leaflets, because luxury professions have to be experienced. You immediately realise whether you’re interested or not when you have the tools in your hands. The brands offer immersive activities: at Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Boucheron, you sit at the jeweller’s workbench, perfumers hold olfactory workshops, Lenôtre holds a log cake workshop, etc.
You realise that manual activities and work have disappeared from the early years of school, which is a shame because you can see how much they are enjoyed. I am happy to see a shift in terms of career guidance: manual trades have been so devalued, and unfortunately, all too often, in secondary school, if you don’t succeed, you are threatened with ending up in vocational training, as if it were a punishment. It has to be a chosen path, and you can have a wonderful career in it. Then, over the following two days, the weekend, it will be open to the general public, students, families, everyone, free of charge. There will also be schools – perfumery, gastronomy, art, woodworking, jewellery, etc. Visitors will discover both the companies that are recruiting and the schools that train people in these skills, which makes the visit very practical. In addition, this year, a four-day series of conferences will be held in the 230-seat amphitheatre of the Grand Palais, with speakers from companies and schools.
Tell us about the original concept behind the Comité Colbert.
It is a non-profit organisation recognised as being of public interest, created in 1954 on the initiative of perfumer Jean-Jacques Guerlain. The initial idea was to reopen foreign markets that had disappeared with the war and to promote French luxury and art de vivre. Among its 15 founding members were Dior, Hermès, Baccarat and Puiforcat – tableware companies were very powerful at the time. Le Bristol was also there, as the idea of cross-disciplinary luxury was already in place. Today, the Comité Colbert brings together 14 different sectors (from perfumery to jewellery, fashion to goldsmithing, gastronomy to wines and spirits, design, music and decoration), but at the time, it was quite innovative. Jean-Jacques Guerlain’s idea for reopening exports was that all luxury sectors should join forces to promote the idea that there is a French luxury and art de vivre, which all these houses embody, and that none can claim to embody alone. The Comité Colbert is really the idea of a collective. Seventy years later, we still exist, which is the good news. The other good news is that all these houses, which in the meantime have become global giants, still feel the urgent need to tell themselves that together we are stronger in representing French luxury and art de vivre.
Is the Comité Colbert’s goal still the same today?
Yes. The common idea is still that together, we must promote and safeguard this shared imagination and heritage. This is also expressed through the preservation of the arts and crafts, the manual trades: this is one of our missions in promoting French luxury and art de vivre. Other missions have been added: we are a lobbying organisation, present in Paris and Brussels to defend and promote the sector in the fight against counterfeiting and for intellectual property, one of our areas of influence – but we are also very influential in the field of sustainable development. We conduct numerous studies to inform all our houses: on what luxury should be tomorrow, the link between artificial intelligence and luxury, its future use, etc. We are a force for proposals. The Comité Colbert is a kind of think tank. Our members include some very large houses, but also smaller ones that are less equipped in terms of strategic monitoring to think about tomorrow.
How many houses are part of the Colbert Committee and what are the selection criteria?
We currently have 98 houses and 18 cultural institutions. Diptyque and Le Grand Palais have just joined. We have many candidates every year and the process for joining the Colbert Committee is quite slow and demanding, so not everyone can join. The official and public criteria require that the company be French by origin, but we do not require French shareholding because many companies have been taken over by foreign capital. The collections must be created in Paris or France. We do not accept companies that are still in the early stages of development: Only fashion houses that are already well established abroad are accepted into Colbert, because the committee requires its fashion houses to generate a significant portion of their turnover abroad. We don’t want to be a stepping stone for a fashion house that might say, ‘I’m having a little trouble breaking through, so I’ll join Colbert and then I’ll conquer the markets.’
Why choose the name Colbert?
In reference to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s finance minister, who was the first to decide, in order to enrich France and its king, to specialise the kingdom in very high-quality products and to open royal manufactories, which became national manufactories. He was the first to believe that a strong economy implied a strong culture – today, we can clearly see that we are still, and more than ever, claiming to be a cultural and creative industry. When Jean-Jacques Guerlain was thinking about a name for this association, the name Colbert came naturally to mind, because we would not be here today discussing the leadership of French luxury if Colbert had not laid the foundations for this industry in the 17th century. When we look at the map of France showing the locations of our houses, we realise how much there is still a correlation with the royal manufactories of the 17th century. For example, in the Rhône-Alpes region, we find the great silk manufacturers: Colbert set them up in Lyon because there was water and favourable land, just as the large tanneries were in this region. Why are Baccarat and the crystal makers in the Grand Est region? Because there were large forests that provided wood for the furnaces. All trade has a geographical logic.
Does the Comité Colbert also carry out activities abroad?
Yes. Last year, as part of the celebrations marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between Paris and Beijing, we organised an exhibition in Shanghai showcasing the expertise of French artisans and exceptional Chinese artisans with comparable skills. The Comité Colbert plays a role in cultural diplomacy: it promotes France through culture, not economics. It can be compared to a ballet company that takes a part of France with it when it performs abroad, or the Louvre organising an exhibition outside its walls. Here’s a scoop: in May 2026 in New York, France and the United States will celebrate 250 years of friendship, and we will organise an event that will tell the secret history of our houses’ American archives, as they all have a connection with the United States – whether it be a fashion show, a product, a muse, etc.
Is luxury craftsmanship specific to Paris?
Paris is the city par excellence of craftsmanship, fashion and creativity. It is where the mind imagines. It is the city of fashion weeks – the first in the world – it is where everything happens. It is then manufactured in the regions – with almost perfect coverage in terms of factories – but the city where everything is conceived remains Paris, of course! And by a long way. The whole world envies us for Paris.
Where does this correlation between luxury and Paris come from?
It is a heritage that was probably created in the 19th century with the first world fairs. In the second half of the 19th century, there were five world’s fairs in Paris: that’s huge! Foreigners came to Paris to see the new products at the exhibition, but also to see the elegant people, to see this city that was lit by gas before all the others, to see the Eiffel Tower… At that time, Paris attracted the whole world and, in this respect, it somewhat revived what had happened under Louis XIV with the construction of Versailles, commissioned by Colbert. It was a palace with a very curious king who was very iconoclastic for his time, as he wore jewellery, silk, necklaces and high heels, put on lipstick and make-up… He was an extremely feminine king who attracted the whole world to Versailles: what made it different from all other courts was that you could enter without an appointment. Of course, there was a dress code for both men and women. Paris is magical thanks to this rich history.
Is Paris still the origin of the dream in 2025?
As we speak, hotels and palaces are full. I think the effect of the Olympic Games, plus the effect of Notre Dame, is undeniable. You can see it when you walk around Paris. The magic has returned, and we can only rejoice.
Examples of participatory workshops open to the general public during Les De(ux) mains du luxe:
Bernardaud: porcelain modelling workshop and decoration techniques
Manufacture de Sèvres: demonstrations and introductions to decoration, cutting, moulding and repair, small casting and painting techniques
Mobilier National: demonstrations and introductions to creation and restoration
Pierre Frey: block printing of wallpaper
Lenôtre: customisation of Yule logs with the house chefs
Ritz Paris: preparation of non-alcoholic cocktails at the bar and virtual tour of the palace using a VR headset
Celine: edge painting, hot stamping, sewing, folding.
Yves Delorme: hand embroidery workshop
Van Cleef & Arpels: introduction to the professions of polisher, lapidary and jeweller, and explanation of the mystery setting.
Bréguet: presentation of the profession of guillocheur
