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French furniture brand Roche Bobois has joined forces with fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, whose work, while not to everybody’s taste, has led to a glut of publicity and a growth in sales. Rieneke Kok asked Roche Bobois brand spokesperson Olivia Bardot to outline the reasons behind this synergy …

Roche Bobois, whose designer furniture is sold in 240 stores worldwide, has always worked with designers – a strategic choice, because linking the brand and its values to those of a designer results in it reaching a larger audience, without the company’s own brand making concessions.

For example, the Japanese designer and perfume brand owner Kenzo Takada has been linked to Roche Bobois since 2000. He upholstered the Mah Jong sofa, designed by interior designer Hans Hopfer. This combined effort is now the company’s best-selling product. Olivia states the clear message of this working method: “Collaborations with designers lead to a boost in sales.”

This year, Roche Bobois added Jean Paul Gaultier to its payroll. Since the collaboration with Kenzo proved so successful, the company decided to work with a fashion designer once more, and sought the best. Jean Paul Gaultier, perhaps best known for creating Madonna’s iconic look in the Nineties, was happy to get involved.

Connecting a famous designer, or a celebrity in general, to a brand, can create a “gigantic buzz”, says Olivia – and, in the case of Gaultier, this has certainly proved the case. “Everybody wants to know something about Gaultier, and the furniture and accessories are on display in almost all our showrooms around the world,” she says.

Olivia’s office is located within the Brussels store, one of the company’s largest showrooms – six floors and over 4500ft2. Roche Bobois stores can be found in over 40 countries, and a new one opens each month, Olivia says. In the UK, they can be found in Liverpool, London, Manchester and Walton-on-Thames. London offers a number of stores, including a shop-in-shop at Harrods.

Its furniture collection can be divided into modern and classic, with 100% of the production carried in Europe and the latter principally manufactured in France. Roche Bobois is a major furniture editor and has a very strong franchisee network – the company determines its own pace, developing and promoting a new collection every six months.

Olivia admits that “you can never tell for sure which percentage of the turnover is because of promotion,” but what is certain is that publicity leads to a higher turnover – and joining forces with a designer like Jean Paul Gaultier ensures this publicity.

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