A Sour Experience for Top Jewellery Showcase at Paris Fashion Week
Will a lack of clarity from French Authorities have exhibitors avoiding Paris in the future?
GOLDRUSH made it’s highly anticipated debut at this years Paris Fashion Week. Co-Founders Valery Demure & Javier Goggins collaborated with NouvelleBox to host a curated selection of fine jewellery brands to top global buyers and press.
Featuring a number of independent designers and fine jewellery pieces, GOLDRUSH received rave reviews. Yet the exhibition was marred with confusion and complications on the final day, after French customs officers interrupted the event.
Javier Goggins reflects on the experience:
“GOLDRUSH is a trade-only jewellery show that presents brands to international retailers and press. Our Autumn/Winter 2024 edition took place from 29th February to 5th March 2024 in a private showroom in Le Marais, Paris.
We exhibited 20 independent jewellery brands that travelled to Paris in good faith from the USA, UK, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Greece, Singapore, Japan, Lebanon and Turkey.
On the afternoon of Tuesday 5th March, the show was interrupted by two unannounced, non-uniformed French customs officers. We explained to them immediately that GOLDRUSH is not a public event, that no retail sales take place and that wholesale customers do not remove any jewellery from the premises as the products are all samples not for sale. We emphasised that sales take place via future orders placed after the show and delivered at a later date from each brand's country of origin to the retailer's country of origin. The customs officers said they understood this.
Due to language barriers, we politely requested that they wait for our French director who was on her way back to the show but, after a couple of minutes, they proceeded to move around the showroom to interrogate brands.
Despite our initial explanation, during their visit, the customs officers stated they were there because it was a public space selling jewellery. We explained again that no retail sales take place at the show and that the public are not allowed to visit. They dismissed our claims until we showed them written correspondence to members of the public explaining that they could not attend due to the trade-only nature of the show. In addition, we presented them with our appointments calendar and visitors book, which clearly displayed who had attended, along with their credentials as store buyers or members of the press. At this point, they conceded that we were not a public show. Despite this, they continued to question brands.
The customs officers outlined that each brand needed not just a carnet (which we always advise brands to acquire), but also that all jewellery must be hallmarked (despite us explaining that they were samples not for sale) and that each brand must register their intent to showcase their product with French authorities in advance. In all our time exhibiting in Paris, we have never been told of these latter requirements, and our industry colleagues were equally surprised to hear of these requirements when we later advised them of our situation.
In our experience, in the event of innocent infractions, customs officials in other countries are mostly interested in helping businesses to understand and follow local regulations to ensure future compliance. In our scenario in Paris, they seemed only interested in intimidating small businesses, issuing fines and collecting money on the spot (cash and card were accepted).
In addition, the customs officers told us that "temporary exports/imports should not exist" — a highly irregular statement that made clear their personal, not just official, position on the matter.
The customs officers remained on the premises until their shift ended around 5pm and, in that time, they questioned three brands from the 20 that were exhibiting. All three brands they questioned failed some aspect of their test and were fined on the spot. One paid in cash and the others using their credit cards. All in all, they went easier on us than on our industry colleagues because one of our directors is French.
As exhibitors and wholesale agents, our team has been presenting brands in Paris (and other international cities including New York City, Las Vegas, Milan, Florence) for over 20 years. We have never experienced a situation like this. Although we have always found Paris a good place to exhibit, this situation has made us question our commitment to the city.
As a show, we contribute significant income to Paris up to four times a year. We rent expensive showrooms, hire display props, furniture, safes, security guards, catering companies and local staff. We rent accommodation for our team and spend on food and drink during the week. In addition, each of our exhibitors contributes to the local economy with accommodation, food, drink, entertainment, transportation, local shopping, etc. This totals hundreds of thousands of euros flowing into the city during each edition of Paris Fashion Week just from our show. Given the large number of single-brand presentations, wholesale showrooms, multi-brand shows and large trade shows that exhibit up to four times a year in Paris, this is a significant revenue stream that they city is putting at risk.
Our hope is that French authorities will work with us, not against us, to ensure that we can continue to do business in Paris. However, the uncertainty, lack of clarity and uncooperative nature of their approach forces us to consider whether exhibiting in a different city, such as Milan, might be a better option in future.”
NouvelleBox Founder, Darren Hildrow, was equally disappointed in how the events unfolded:
“One of the brands that they fined was Turquoise Mountain, a registered charity that supports men and women in war-torn countries. They had come to France and to the show only to raise awareness of their project.
I have been involved with shows in Paris for 20 years and this was something that I have never experienced before. I have always advised all the brands attending the show to carry the correct import carnet documentation. I understood that this was the only documentation the brands needed. The jewellery at the show is not for sale, they are only samples. I was then informed by the officers that the carnet was of no relevance, all that mattered was the hall marks on the jewellery.
When I asked them for advice or if they had a document that I could share with the brands that would enable the brands to follow the law correctly, the officers responded, "If you go to America do they give you a document that explains how to follow the speeding law? No we don't and we don't have documents." This was extremely unhelpful.
I want to help the brands follow the law but it appeared the officers only wanted to extract money from the brands and not help them to follow the law.”
This incident highlights the challenges faced by businesses navigating international trade regulations. Without the French Authorities providing clarity or guidelines, will brands feel it less complicated to showcase elsewhere in the future?
Icons of British Fashion Exhibition at Blenheim Palace
The Icons of British Fashion exhibition has now opened at Blenheim Palace. Featuring a line up of world class designers and labels, including Dame Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney and Stephen Jones Millinery for Christian Dior, the exhibition celebrates fashion from the past through to the present day
Fashion Roundtable’s CEO, Tamara Cincik, gives her thoughts after attending the exhibition launch:
“It was fantastic to attend the opening night of The Icons of British Fashion exhibition at Blenheim Palace.
The show highlights not only the beauty of Blenheim, one of the most celebrated stately homes in the UK owned by the Spencer family of which both Winston Churchill and the late Diana, Princess of Wales were members, but also some of the most rightly called iconic designers in the British fashion industry.
Jean Muir is less well known now, but her jersey dresses predating Donna Karan were elegant easy to dress workwear in simple silhouettes. Both Alice Temperley and Zandra Rhodes showed off English party girls at their coolest, dancing on banquet tables, shaking their disco pink hair, so much fun!
From Barbour’s country pursuits to Terry de Havilland’s rock chick heels, from Stella McCartney’s visionary sustainability agenda, to Stephen Jones and his beautiful hats for his own eponymous collections as well as for Dior, Galliano and others, this is a joy to visit and I highly recommend it. Also wonderful to see so much of the Bath Fashion Museum archive on display during its refurbishment.”
