Queen of fashion brands strategy and expansion

Camille is an inspirational and professional young woman who has started her career in the fashion industry nearly a decade ago. Her work experience includes working for brands like Hermès, Chanel, SMCP, ba&sh, and she has just recently joined AMI Paris where she is responsible for the brand ́s operations and international development.

We met in Paris a couple of years ago during the fashion week SS19 – September 2018. Fashion week is manic period of time, but Camille was professional, prepared and open to listen to the opportunity to expand the brand ba&sh to the Czech Re- public.

She said that our presentation of Kotva Prague department store project was so convincing, she would make time to visit, and she did, in December 2018. Soon, we built partnership beyond the work relationship and as we both re-call our first meeting – it was love at the first sight.

Would you introduce yourself, Camille?

I was born in South of France to family of doctors, teachers and military professionals. I guess this is where I learnt and mas- tered my organisational skills and established my set of values! None of my family members were in business, but I was fasci- nated with the world of commerce and eager to discover how it works. Especially in the fashion world as I was very receptive to the brands narratives. Naturally I took the way of a business school in Paris.

I started my career with luxury brands, Hermès, Chanel, and then joined affordable luxury brands: SMCP and ba&sh, I am currently working for AMI Paris – which is truly beautiful brand – inside out. What I realised is my appreciation of the entre- preneurial creative brand with strong purpose where every member has big part and responsibility in creating and develop- ing the story.

I have experience from different business functions from finance, strategy, development, and sales, and all this knowledge has helped me to evaluate and drive brands towards the aimed results. I see myself as a conductor of orchestra.

What made you to decide for the career in retail? And what do you enjoy the most?

From the very beginning I knew I wanted to be linked to a tangible product and experience. I need to be anchored in our multi sensorial world. Working in finance or technology would have been too abstract in relations to my personality. Moreo- ver, Retail is a perfect combination of science and emotional human experience. You may set the right merchandise at the right place at the right price, but you will never 100% master the client feeling when he meets your product. This is especially true in fashion retail and I love this dose of human subjectivity. It is a strong injection of aesthetic in business. Every fashion retail professional uses his/her left and right brain at all times.

You also lived and work abroad, where, and what did you learn about yourself and working in- ternationally?

I love this question. I used to live abroad for over 5 years –in India the UK, and Asia – Singapore and Hong Kong. I feel strong connection to Asian culture. I am also grateful that thanks to my roles, I could work within Europe, Russia, Africa. While trav- elling so much for business, I learnt there is no need to over adapt the ways of working, presenting, negotiating. In the core essence of humanity, we are the same. Everywhere in the world people seek trust, authenticity and reliability, including in business interactions. Keeping your word, moral commitment, even if not formalised in a contract, is critical to success on the long term. Faithful to this principle, I was lucky to build a long-lasting businesses relationship, which for some of them actually became genuine friendships.

However, it would be wrong to say all cultures are interacting the same way. What deeply sets them apart is what I call the “intimacy space”. I recommend reading book by Edward T. Hall, “The Hidden Dimension”. It demonstrates how man’s use of space can affect personal and business relations, architecture, city planning etc. It really helps people working in cross cul- tural environment understand the importance of this invisible territory while respecting the local etiquette. For example, in China, the seating plan in a meeting is very important. The most important guest seats opposite to the door, with the host on its left.