Helen Cooper, Founder & CEO, Helen Cooper School of Luxury, in conversation with RCB President Vineet Bhatnagar
What was the genesis of the Helen Cooper School of Luxury?
The opportunity that I could bring because of my knowledge and background. I have mentored many entrepreneurs and they were all missing skills in finance strategy, marketing, and product development, and I had those things in spades. The opportunities that India offers in luxury and sustainability were huge, but many businesses didn’t know where to start.
So, you are trying to bring an intersection between sustainability and luxury; how do you think sustainability and climate friendliness is seeping in across the board?
Luxury has always been about being first, it is innovation. Up until I don’t think luxury was taking sustainability seriously. Now we must because Gen Z are the ones with money, and they are rejecting brands that are not sustainable. This is forcing innovation. Fur has been outlawed by a lot of luxury brands, but rare and unusual skin is still used. Luxury needs to see sustainability as more than a PR exercise; newer luxury brands haven’t really looked at that purpose and responsibility.
Give us an example of a brand that is adopting sustainability successfully.
Older brands experiment with new materials. They will use mushroom leather, which is beautiful, but it doesn’t make it to a full collection. You don’t see it percolating down to everything that they do. When a luxury brand is sustainable in everything that they do, then, I’ll put the flags up. Until it is still a PR piece.
Some of the newer brands don’t even use conventional materials; they use the sustainably sourced materials. A lot of brands I have seen nobody would have heard of because they are yet to make it big. And they will because they are working towards it; they are upcycling.
When you look at home-grown business luxury brands in India, how much are sustainability and friendliness towards climate ingrained in them?
It has been a part of their way of operating. Sabyasachi Mukherjee is working well with karigars and ensuring that they have quality living. Sustainability is not just about the environment; it also goes into social. Rebecca Reuben in Delhi is a great example of a person who is focussed on sustainability. So, made in India is a strong point in future. We have a story and interesting point to view. India has that and the western market is ready for it.
You are doing an educational approach to understanding sustainability and luxury through webinars and courses and you are advising some of the entrepreneurs to go for it. Tell us about it.
Education is key to sustainability, but it is missing in some ways. Sustainability is overwhelming, change just one thing this time. Stop wasting one thing. If everybody starts changing one thing, we make an enormous leap forward. It is about embedding sustainability as an education piece too.
Gen Z, as you said, are more conscious of the environment and that is also why businesses will start taking sustainability seriously, right?
Yes, honestly it is important to be responsible and sustainable. Businesses like H&M are not responsible, it would be a pleasure to watch them suffer because they will put one department of sustainability and point out to media how great they are whereas I know from people that that department is highly neglected. It is worlds away from true sustainability. The Gen Z money will keep the luxury brands going. So, future proofing of business is important, if you are not sustainable you are probably dead.
Are you seeing that shift in methodology to accommodate sustainability? Where is it happening?
I can see it in my daughter’s generation. She is in her 20s and what she is doing is buying less and when she does buy, she is doing that considerately. She will not go and buy from high street brands and rather save it for something better. If there are more people like her and she is not an exception, she has just made up her mind, then the next two generations will leave the world in a better place.
What advice would you give entrepreneurs in general to aid the sustainable model that we are talking about here?
Embed it from the very start. It is easier for new business to make sustainability the heart of your brand DNA because that will drive every decision you make and it means you will automatically be creating the right supply chain, right decisions, right materials, and right products, from the very beginning. Change one thing, let’s work that through. You need to do your bit, and if everybody does that we will be in a better place.
All emerging markets are driven by a single thing, growth; in that respect, do you think your entry into India is ahead of time? Do you think people are ready to change and evolve?
I am always willing to have more. Yes, it is an early stage but you have to start. I am an inventor, innovator and pioneer in so many other things, and this is one of those. You have to demonstrate by doing something like this and I want to create a future. That is my whole being.
How did you stumble upon India?
I looked at the whole criteria and metric and I am always drawn towards India. It is karmic, maybe. I see all the necessary items in India but nothing was able to pull it together. India is leading so many areas and the greatest potential is in luxury production and yet none of it is recognised. For me, it was the entrepreneurial spirit at the heart of India, the desire to do better and the fact that, actually, you are hit by climate change, growing middle class, western brands knocking on the door which are keeping the Indian luxury brands away. All of that and more is great to take an opportunity and my expertise to help and make a little difference.
Is it fair to say that you are also advising Indian entrepreneurs to do market entry outside India with their business and products?
It is a full range of services. I am a very practical person, so our courses are very skilled base. It is not valued much in India, but for me it is about how you do it. Businesses need to know how to apply the knowledge. I teach techniques to up your game, that is with my experience to sustain the brands.
Tell us an example of a business you have helped to repurpose.
There have been a few but a recent one is the Royal Mint. They have been making coins for kings and queens of England since 886 AD. It is an 1100 years old business but what’s happening? Nobody is using coins anymore. That is the definition of a dying business, people are not using your products.
So, I was asked to look into other opportunities of how they could reinvent themselves and make them relevant. So, one of the things was jewellery and creation of jewellery. So, the brand has got to have some truth, some heritage element and I took the way they used to make coins and miniatured it so that they become pieces of jewellery and that was very successful because people love works of art.
We were also approached by a Canadian company who found a way of stripping metals out of electronic items and so we saw how we could recover the gold from that. So, they are now using the recycled gold in the jewellery that they create under the brand name of 886. So, that is a full circle.
What does the future of sustainability in the luxury and general market look like to you?
Luxury brands need to look at it as an opportunity to be creative and global. The essence of luxury has always been in rarity and extra-ordinariness and something that has aesthetic and beautiful features rather than high volume. So, I believe sustainability is minimising and reducing volumes. If you keep on producing more and more eventually the materials and resources are wasted if they are not sold. I would love to see a volume game than an expensive game. The consumer is becoming more aware and it is all about trust.
Best fashion advice that you ever got?
Don’t wear small prints.
Best fashion advice that you would give to someone.
Wear what you like and it suits you.
Is there something called objective beauty?
No. I think you always have an opinion.
Do you have a collection of anything?
I collect chess sets. Can’t play but they are beautiful.
What inspires you the most?
People who are prepared to take risks.
Texting or talking?
Talking.
What is the most rewarding advice that you ever got?
Follow your dream, you know you are right even if others are telling you that you are wrong. Keep on going. Be resilient.
How do you start your day?
With a smile and a bowl of fruit and some yoga.
What is your favourite childhood memory?
Washing my bike.
Anything that you do even today that you used to do as a child?
Paint.
Sunrise or sunset?
Sunset.
Mountains or beaches?
Mountains.
If you could put something on a billboard, what would it be?
Smile, today is another day.
Giving presents or getting presents?
Giving, always.
In the hierarchy of luxury would you say sustainable luxury is the next step?
Yes.
It is purpose over profit, how do you imbibe that in the companies? What do you think about brands like Patagonia proliferating the market and how do you tell people to wear what they have?
Actually, purpose can drive better profits because your purpose at the start actually attracts employees, and they stay with you. They are driving your business because they are aligned to your values. You will also attract consumers to you, you build loyalty and embed yourself in their story. So, profit is okay. You are not a charity; you should look at making the profit fairly.
Good profit is entirely different. Discouraging purchase, Patagonia is an example of a change in business models. Reselling is a good thing. I think it is about how to use what you have and use it like it is distinctively you and drives you. Individuality is something to celebrate, it is not a bad thing to wear clothes that you have from years. I have 20-30-year-old clothes. I have great memories with them. You shouldn’t be throwing them away to buy the latest things.
Every brand has their own belief system, how difficult does it get for you to suggest that there might be some things contrasting to their growth?
The belief system is there but there is also the nagging belief that they should be doing something different. I am not an eco-warrior or trying to be difficult. I don’t want them to feel bad, I want to elevate them to be better.