Why sustainability is key to the future of French luxury brands

France’s top luxury trade body took the unusual decision Feb. 16 to distribute a print magazine that would ride piggyback to 34,000 households receiving The New York Times newspaper in wealthy Manhattan. The singular focus of the ad-supported supplement highlighting disparate efforts by various French luxury brands? Sustainability.

That seemingly paradoxical step from Comité Colbert acknowledges the key power of U.S. consumers, particularly in New York, to tip luxury sales. The magazine drop was marked by a morning seminar summoning some of the good and great of French luxury at the Villa Albertine on Fifth Avenue in New York.

“We are targeting the American market, the largest for our industry,” said Bénédicte Épinay, CEO of Comité Colbert. “We know that American consumers have become particularly sensitive to sustainability.”

All 93 members of Comité Colbert – from Dior to Givenchy and Chanel, Hermès to Cartier – are in the process of adopting sustainable practices across the entire supply chain of their sourcing, manufacturing and distribution processes.

In this move, these maisons not only enhance their care of the environment, but also head off consumer concerns over circularity in luxury even as fashion comes under severe scrutiny.

Ms. Épinay, in this interview with Luxury Roundtable CEO Mickey Alam Khan, outlines Comité Colbert’s commitment to sustainability, steps being taken by the association, logic behind the 51-page New York Times magazine supplement and its desired outcomes from ongoing initiatives.

Please read Luxury Roundtable article’s here

Click here to read Comité Colbert’s special supplement on sustainability that was distributed to select households in Manhattan along with their New York Times newspaper issue