Portrait - Entrepreneur & Alumni

Dear Alumni,

Within the Club Entrepreneurs of IFM Alumni, we offer you our first portrait of Alumni & Entrepreneur, that of Laetitia Lumbroso (IFM Management 2006), co-founder of ESTRËE..

Hello, Laetitia, 

Considering this delicate period, everyone is focused on issues related to the current health crisis, but we are very eager to exchange with you on your adventure, your successes and your entrepreneurial projects!

We decided about a very simple alphabet interview. 

We are very selective with the different letters, don’t worry ..

Question A - Let's start with the A letter...

And today let’s start at the beginning of your story. What happened? Where did D’ESTREE come from?

By 2015, I had already been working in the luxury industry for more than 10 years, mostly for Dior and previously for the Jacadi brand.  Graduated from ESSEC and IFM, I already had an entrepreneurial spirit. It was during this period that I met Géraldine Guyot, a young designer graduated from the Saint Martin's School of Arts in London.

Our exchanges quickly brought us closer and led us to a collection of artistically inspired accessories. 

Our idea was to develop Géraldine's ideas in a proposal of singular accessories, faithful to her elegant and sculptural vocabulary of soft shapes, new fashion attitude and sense of bright and delicate colours. 

We kept in mind our aesthetic since the very first steps until now.

At the beginning, we started with hats made in Paris. Quite quickly we developed a leather goods activity, made in Italy by renowned craftsmen. In 2019, we added a line of jewellery made in Paris.  

By bringing together these three accessories families, we wanted to create a brand "out of the ordinary" with a graphic, pure and colorful twist in our wardrobes. This attitude is still the soul and the added value of our brand.

Some of our dear customers even go so far as to display our bags as works of art, design objects or at least inspiring references… We love it ! 

Today, D'ESTRËE is distributed in the largest luxury boutiques around the world. In less than 5 years, we have seen people mentioning D'ESTREE as a real little French Success Story ... What a pressure ... but it is also very stimulating!

Question B as Breaking point…. 

At some point you made this decision to start your own business - how did this switch-over take place?

I have started growing professionally very early, and my position at Dior brought me even more maturity.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely at ease with this super brand organization. Set up my own business was a very strong desire.

Over the years and through many encounters, I help 12 designers launching their projects.  A first click occurred at that time. I wondered if I was going to carry on with this comfortable and very rewarding professional life ... or if I was going to try another kind of adventure, closer to the one of these independent designers I was working with.

I thought and I still think that the most important thing is to work a little bit with someone before deciding if you want to "marry" professionally or not. I worked with Géraldine for more than a year on her project before I decided to start D’ESTRËE with her. It was my second click, I knew that it was with her that I wanted to work. After building the business plan together, we started...

Question C as Counsel…

What is the highest quality for an entrepreneur?  Who do you think can become an entrepreneur? How to be successful? Would you give special advice to a student who want to be an entrepreneur?

Tip number one: Listen to yourself. When the time comes, you will know it. This can be after one or several experiences as an employee, but it is not the only way. It is possible to start as soon as you are a student or just after graduation. You have to follow your intuition.

Tip number 2: You must know how to create your network and not hesitate to talk to others about your project. Interact with other fashion professionals and entrepreneurs wil help you to give birth to and develop great ideas. 

Do not hesitate, for example, to ask your alumni network for a coffee, it's a good way to start your own network and even great friendships.

Question D like Daily & Urgently

We hope that we won't keep this question for very long, but can you tell us how the current situation induce specific complications, risks maybe also opportunities? In these times of crisis, how do you face the difficulties? What steps have you taken to stay on track?

The reasonable size of the company is an asset. D'ESTRËE was able to adapt very quickly to the current situation. Since the beginning, we relied on a team of freelancers and independent craftsmen. Given the young age of our structure, our rapid diversification and the relatively fast growth phases we have already experienced, this organization allows us to limit our fixed costs and to adjust our expenses more easily.

We currently hope that our wholesale distribution strategy and our very small size will enable us to face this crisis. For the moment, the damage is still limited, the risks are better controlled and we can concentrate on the post-covid projects.

Regarding our production, some craftsmen work alone from their homes and others, such as the leather goods workshops, have organized themselves to work in small teams while respecting safety measures. Overall, production is still only slightly impacted, which allows us to deal with these difficult weeks.

However, we had to take the decision to postpone our project to open our first boutique in Paris.

Question F as Future (we’ve missed euhhhhh)

What are your plans for D'ESTRËE how do you see the coming weeks and months?

Today D'ESTRËE is a “niche” brand. In fact, it is still very little known despite the development of our clients around the world.

The next step is therefore to open a “boutique” in Paris, in order to establish the brand's notoriety by having a controlled and direct communication.

Moreover, the brand is now carried by artistic personalities whose sensibility echoes that of D'ESTRËE. And in the nowadays world that is currently changing so strongly, it is essential that our creativity, this form of poetry, the way accessories can tell us a new story, continue to grow.

Our strong and demanding aesthetic has always been at the heart of D'ESTRËE. Thanks to social networks and to influencers we find today a wider echo. Our desire for 2020 is to interact with new audiences in search of beautiful, fresh, elegant and inspiring pieces ... très françaises toujours!

Let's go straight to Question N..

That's the Network question. Do you network for your projects? What about the IFM Alumni community?  What do these networks bring you and what do you recommend?

I am quite active in the Alumni community and I like networking. Joining several times a month IFM Alumni events and other networks is a way to start and build strong professional relationships. Younger alumni can be delighted to enter with the IFM Alumni into a valuable new ecosystem of entrepreneurs and professionals passionate about Fashion, Design and Luxury. I do expect this community to grow and offer me the opportunity to meet new talents! 

Thank you very much Laetitia!

So see you soon on Instagram ... before we can have coffee again together or better yet meet at the D’ESTREE shop!