Jewellery brand Atelier Paulin opens New York store

By

Sarah Ahssen

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Oct 30, 2018

At the end of November, one year virtually to the day after Atelier Paulin opened its first store on rue Richelieu, Paris, the French handmade jewellery brand will be opening a second store, this time on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Atelier Paulin’s new boutique will be located at 23 8th Avenue, in the heart of New York’s West Village.

At the 40-square-metre New York boutique, customers will be able to personalise their jewellery (bracelets, rings, earrings and pendants, all handmade from precious metal threads) with the letter or word they wish, shaped by the expert fingers of artisans trained at Atelier Paulin in France. “Since Atelier Paulin was created four years ago, we have trained 22 artisans, and 10 of them are now working in our retail corners abroad,” said Anne-Sophie Baillet, who worked as press officer for several fashion labels, then in event management, before launching Atelier Paulin in 2014 with Mathias Lavaux, a crowdfunding specialist in the film industry.

Atelier Paulin is now present in 160 retail outlets, and the number keeps growing as the brand is about to open five permanent retail corners in international department stores, including one at Selfridges in London, La Rinascente in Milan, DFS in Macao and Le Bon Marché in Paris, where Atelier Paulin already operates one concession. “We created a turnkey concept. A mobile studio with a display counter to showcase our collections and a workshop where our artisan is able to customise jewellery. All of this in two square metres. At a time when everybody wants each square metre to turn a profit, ours is an attractive concept,” said Anne-Sophie Baillet.

Other brands are attracted by the idea of craftsmanship-style customisation, and Atelier Paulin has created a line of mother/child jewellery for Bonton and also developed shoelace jewellery for Nike. With the latter, Atelier Paulin is currently setting up an itinerant studio for Nike Lab stores, where customers will be able to buy and customise their shoelace jewellery.

Atelier Paulin’s range also includes favourites such as the bracelets featuring words like ‘love’, ‘amour’ or ‘happy’, made in argentium silver thread (€140), and has recently launched a fine jewellery line whose bracelets and earrings are decorated with precious and semi-precious gems.

Atelier Paulin is entirely self-financed and has been profitable ever since its inception. It didn’t disclose its revenue, but indicated that its annual growth rate is between 30% and 40%.