Alumni Portrait - Cyrine Khalfaoui, Place du Beau
Cyrine Khalfaoui is a graduate of our MBA Luxury Brand Marketing & International Management. This year, she launched her own company: Place du Beau. She tells us about her journey.
1. Tell us about your experience at Sup de Luxe. Why did you choose our school?
Sup de Luxe was the school that I had been eyeing since I left high school. Dreaming of studying marketing and the world of luxury, I waited until I obtained my Bachelor's degree to apply for a year of MBA at the Institute. I really wanted to enter the Institute with a better understanding of this world, to bring a real vision and experience. So I went to the various interviews at the end of my Bachelor's degree and I was very happy when I was told that my application had been accepted! For a year, I had the opportunity to meet the women and men who make luxury today and tomorrow, entrepreneurs, creators, and simply inspiring people who taught me a lot about luxury but also about what lies behind the glitter and the strass: a lot of work, hard work and passion. I chose Sup de Luxe above all for its credibility: the institute was created by and for luxury brands, which was for me a notable argument, not to mention its incredible address book, which has served me well for the rest of my life.
2. What is the best memory of your experience?
The trip to Deauville, without a doubt! With a great memory of the evening spent with all the students. I also have another good memory, more studious, at the House of Van Cleef & Arpels, where we were able to group together in workshops to learn about gemology.
3. Tell us about your career and its evolution from school to today?
It's quite funny because my professional experience started precisely thanks to Sup de Luxe, which had a partnership with Le Figaro. Every year, a contest was organized with Le Figaro to give students the chance to get a scholarship and an internship at Le Figaro, in advertising. As a contest fan, I obviously participated and I was selected! I started as an intern at Le Figaro as an assistant advertising manager, then I was taken on as a fixed-term contract, and then as a permanent contract, until I became an account manager. I was in charge of a portfolio of beautiful brands in the luxury, fashion and beauty sectors, which I accompanied in the creation of their communication strategy on the Figaro titles. After 4 beautiful years spent there, I moved to Nice and wanted to realize my dream, that of launching my own business! I was very attracted by the profession of interior designer, so I trained and retrained last December, when the health crisis was the subject of all fears and uncertainties. After retraining and quickly starting to work on remote decorating projects, I launched my project that I had been working on for a while last July: Place du Beau, an online concept store specialized in interior design, fashion and lifestyle.
4. How have your acquired skills been useful for your career path?
The skills I acquired were indispensable to me both during my experience at Le Figaro and when I launched my company. I am thinking in particular of communication and business strategy, which still help me today to develop strategies, communicate on my project and make it last.
5. Why did you choose to launch your brand?
Because I needed to get up in the morning with the ambition to create and develop a project that I really cared about. I needed freedom, independence, creation... entrepreneurship was made for me! It has always been my deepest desire and today, I know that I am in the right place!
6. What is the concept and ambitions of your brand?
The ambition of Place du Beau is to offer a whole universe that revolves around Beauty: interior design, fashion, art of living... whatever the field, I want to share my vision of Beauty, inspired by my experience in luxury and my travels.
Place du Beau is an online store - which I hope to expand into a physical concept store - offering a selection of favorite objects, chosen for their originality and elegance, and created by French or European brands that are not very present on the market or by passionate artists.
Place du Beau is an interior design agency that assists professionals and individuals in the design and decoration of their interior/space.
Place du Beau is also an Instagram page which continues to grow and offers content around everything that makes the Beautiful.
In short, Place du Beau is a virtuous circle, a place where professions, inspirations, ideas, collaborations converge... the Place du Beau what!
7. What's new at Place du Beau?
I have just launched my new collection! Colorful, original, elegant objects... the key words that guide each of my selections.
8. What can we wish you for the future of your career?
The best that can be wished for me is that I can serenely continue this adventure and make it last: even more decoration projects, a successful online store, its declension into a physical store, beautiful collaborations...
9. Explain your vision of luxury in one sentence.
For me, luxury is the power and the chance to seize the rare, unpublished, exclusive, unique, ephemeral character of an object, an experience, a moment, a memory or an emotion.