Luxury Brand Management | A Memorable visit to Chanel 19M

A blog by Sheersha Dash, current participant in the Luxury Brand Management track of the Global MBA program.

A key highlight of ESSEC’s GMBA Luxury Brand Management program is the highly customized curriculum focused on the Luxury industry, and which also gives plenty of opportunities to meet major players in the market during field trips and ‘Savoir Faire’ visits, that no other program can provide. These exceptionally tailored Savoir Faire visits are unique to ESSEC’s GMBA-LBM program, and offer the most incredible and rare experiences to its participants.

 One such experience for the GMBA-LBM-2022 cohort was the Masterclass by Bruno Pavlovsky, Fashion President, at Chanel’s recently inaugurated 19M atelier, the new site for its Métiers d’Art. Its goal is to preserve and develop the savoir-faire of the Métiers d’art by bringing all the houses together under the same roof including : the embroidery of Lesage , the Montex atelier and MTX, its decoration department,  Lemarié (flowers  and feathers), Massaro (bootmaker), Maison  Michel (millinery), Lognon (pleating) and Goossens (costume jewellery & decorative objects).

It was the much talked about Métiers d’Art show by Chanel, a collection imagined by Virginie Viard – held at their industrial chic space 19M, that was attended by Friends and Ambassadors of Chanel, such as Vanessa Paradis, Sofia Coppola, Pharrell Williams, etc. The very next day of the show, was the Masterclass by Bruno Pavlovsky which was attended by students from a very select few Fashion and Luxury Management schools. One such invitee was the GMBA LBM cohort from ESSEC Business School. By the time we arrived at 19M, us 11 participants had already realized the exclusivity of the event. We were led to the lobby where we were served refreshments before the masterclass started. Post refreshments, we were ushered into the really urban and chic space, all visualized by Rudy Ricciotti, where we were seated on concrete benches to hear Bruno Pavlovsky speak.

 
Standing in front of almost 200 students, Mr Pavlovsky gave his insights on cultivating a strong brand identity, creating a luxury experience, placing creation at the heart, and sustaining know-how. He also talked about how Chanel, through the 19M project, has been giving back to the community surrounding the 19M. It was truly insightful and eye-opening, and the talk was followed by a barrage of questions by inquisitive students, including those from our cohort. Next was the talk by model and music producer Caroline de Maigret, and Dimitri Chamblas, who choreographed the film that was shown before the show. Their talk was also followed by a lot of questions.
 
The next round of talks was a surprise for us, as we didn’t know the agenda for the rest of the day. To our amazement, we saw Pharrell Williams, Brand Ambassador – Chanel, walk on to the podium. We were all quite pleasantly surprised and excited at the same time. Mr Williams talked about his pet project “Black Ambition” that he’s working on back in the US, a non-profit initiative to support Black and Latinx entrepreneurs and about his interactions with Chanel’s craftsmen at the Atelier, and also answered the fervent questions fielded by excited students, with utmost grace and humility. We all just realized that this day was getting better and better. However, like all good things do, this event was to come to an end. That was not all though, as they had one more surprise for us – Chanel gifts for some of the best questions of the day of which ESSEC received more than one!
 
We finally bid adieu to 19M, with some of us proudly carrying Chanel gift bags, and all of us beaming excitedly with the exceptional experience we had just had at Chanel, thanks to ESSEC’s GMBA Luxury Brand Management program. Such days don’t come by easily, and we were thankful and happy that it did for us!