VERNEUIL-EN-HALATTE, France — It may be a tall order, but Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS, delivered it cheerfully.
“With this project, a new chapter in Chanel’s history, guided by the ambition of becoming — and there’s a heavy responsibility for the teams here, I’m weighing my words carefully — the most beautiful leather goods production site in Europe. To develop and produce the most beautiful handbags in the world,” he said, kicking off a brick-laying ceremony for a new manufacturing site north of Paris.
The new site, which will stretch over 270,000 square feet, is billed by the luxury group as the first in France to seek such stringent environmental standards. Certifications sought include High Environmental Quality and BREEAM certification, while electricity production will come from the building’s solar panels; a pool of water ringing one side of the building and green spaces are planned, meant to favor biodiversity of plants and wildlife.
Currently a building site cluttered with cranes, dirt-moving machines hummed in the background while Pavlovsky, site manager Rodolphe Maucolin and local officials scraped wet cement into a section of wall set up for the ceremony.
“It all started with a little leather goods workshop in the
“With this project, a new chapter in Chanel’s history, guided by the ambition of becoming — and there’s a heavy responsibility for the teams here, I’m weighing my words carefully — the most beautiful leather goods production site in Europe. To develop and produce the most beautiful handbags in the world,” he said, kicking off a brick-laying ceremony for a new manufacturing site north of Paris.
The new site, which will stretch over 270,000 square feet, is billed by the luxury group as the first in France to seek such stringent environmental standards. Certifications sought include High Environmental Quality and BREEAM certification, while electricity production will come from the building’s solar panels; a pool of water ringing one side of the building and green spaces are planned, meant to favor biodiversity of plants and wildlife.
Currently a building site cluttered with cranes, dirt-moving machines hummed in the background while Pavlovsky, site manager Rodolphe Maucolin and local officials scraped wet cement into a section of wall set up for the ceremony.
“It all started with a little leather goods workshop in the