Thinking Small
Three brands illustrate why the newest horizon in the booming luxury market is one of the smallest in scale as they cater to the fast-growing children's market with unique products and charm
Sometimes the next big opportunity is continents away; at other times it's in the backyard. In Paris, word has it that the high-end children's-wear brand Bonpoint is in play. Several luxury purveyors—including the Pinault family, whose retail holdings include Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent—have expressed interest. Bonpoint, the quintessential Parisian brand, is known for meticulous detailing and classics with a fizz in sizes 0 to 16. The company is both desirable and underexposed, and the Pinaults are well placed to observe the little consumers-in-training—their family mansion near the Luxembourg Gardens overlooks Bonpoint's palatial new flagship store.
All parties deny a sale is afoot (so expect an announcement any day, goes the thinking), but whatever the outcome, the speculation has turned the spotlight on the luxury children's-wear category in general and more specifically on Bonpoint, which has always asserted the charm of Liberty prints and pin tucks over high-decibel, mini-me ensembles. Bonpoint is less a demonstration of that old clunker "good taste," with its black-or-white dress-code overtones, than of the marvelous French notion of un goût sûr: almost anything can work so long as it's not overdone, the proportions are considered, and it's pulled together with style—along with good shoes ("Properly shod, children can go anywhere," Bonpoint founder Marie-France Cohen likes to say).
The aesthetic suited Charlotte Gainsbourg's parents, icons Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, in the late '70s when Bonpoint was still a mom-and-pop operation off the Boulevard St. Germain, with founder Cohen in the studio and her husband Bernard keeping the books. Over the years, the business grew, and the couple opened stores in various capitals. In 2003, 33 years after opening their first boutique, the Cohens sold 70% of the company to Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners, an investment group specializing in growing small and medium-size companies for resale. At a recent press conference, Bonpoint executives noted that their expansion plan was in full swing: annual sales growth averages 14%, with estimated sales of $54.9 million in 2006. The company has opened 20 new boutiques in three years, for a total of 60 shops by the end of the year, including stores relocated on prime luxury-shopping streets in Paris, London and New York City and new ones opening in Asia, where Japan is Bonpoint's top priority.