Plein Cadre - NADIA DHOUIB

So, I introduce myself: my name is Nadia Dhouib, and I'm here to talk to you about fashion and this wonderful industry. Personally, it's a sector I have in my blood and that I love deeply, perhaps because I didn't enter this world easily and I struggled to be part of it. Nothing predestined me to enter this universe: I was born and grew up in Tunisia, and I never planned to come to France for my studies. I came to France to discover new horizons, and my key to coming was the preparatory class at HEC—the only studies that allowed me to cross the Mediterranean and get my parents' blessing, as they wanted me to study medicine. So I started a classic path: prep school, HEC, business school. I felt attracted to the creative world of fashion and luxury, but I didn't have the codes, the network, or even a work permit. So naturally, I ended up in consulting and finance, sectors that are more open and recruit more foreigners. But that didn't stop me: at 26, I finally got a foot in the industry thanks to Galeries Lafayette, and a whole world of possibilities opened up. To make sure I would always be part of this universe, I enrolled in an Executive MBA at the Institut Français de la Mode, and there I began my career and found my voice. I started as a buyer—identifying brands, studying their potential, and developing them in department stores. It's funny how when you find your passion and your job becomes your passion, things happen very naturally. I thrived, grew, met fascinating people, discovered interesting brands, and climbed the ranks. For 10 years, I was in the front row to observe the transformation of the fashion world. On one hand, French fashion brands were developing, professionalizing, and moving away from the traditional 'Sentier' model. Luxury brands were increasing their desirability and exploding internationally, especially with Chinese customers. They developed unique concepts, dedicated sales forces, and retail networks. In parallel, digital accelerated with the rise of e-tailers becoming major competitors to department stores, social media multiplying brands, and many young, digital, 100% agile brands emerging. At the center of all this is the customer, with increasing energy, becoming more informed and more demanding in terms of experience and service. And as a foreigner, I was surprised that Paris, the capital of fashion, seemed caught in a kind of conservatism—everything became similar because we were speaking to an international clientele. You find the same concepts, same brands, same way of selling, same way of telling stories, as everywhere in the world. That's when I accepted the exciting but perilous challenge that Galeries Lafayette offered me: to open a 'wow' store on the most beautiful avenue in the world, the Champs-Élysées. It was about innovating across the entire value chain: in purchasing, mixing digital brands and established ones; in sales, opting for a 100% personalized stylist sales force (I saw some of them in the room); in customer experience and journey, working with visionary architects who had never done retail before; and of course, innovating in communication and experience to blend fashion, music, and crowds. Yes, we chose not to please everyone—we decided that to reach our target, we had to step aside and be different, especially to speak to a younger, digital, international clientele, and also to bring French people and Parisians back to the Champs-Élysées. I won't detail the concept or what worked or didn't, nor how difficult it was to open a store on the Champs-Élysées during the Yellow Vests protests just before the pandemic. Instead, I'll share four truths that struck me and that I want to keep and share with you. First: it's really hard to innovate in France, to step off the beaten path, even in fashion—even though we are the capital of fashion and supposed to be first and innovative. There's a kind of distrust; things have to prove themselves in New York or Tokyo before we approve them here. It's as if we don't dare to be first, which is nonsense—the world expects Paris to be first, especially in fashion. My second truth: the formidable energy and power that an intrapreneurial or entrepreneurial project can bring to a company or group, even one 120 years old like Galeries Lafayette. I saw bright eyes, highly motivated young people, and also colleagues who had been at the counter for 30 years, super excited about the project. Everyone felt we were going to change the sector, transform things, as if we were going to change the world. That's how I realized that the entrepreneurial spirit awakens the company, and everything becomes possible. My third truth: a concept we use a lot in fashion—mix and match, mixing different things. I translate that into transversality, diversity, and inclusion. I think the fashion sector deeply needs to open up, aerate, integrate different talents, different backgrounds, mix generations, and of course mix genders. This sector and this fashion must continue to renew itself to keep dreaming and stay cool. Finally, my last truth: any audacious project, especially very audacious ones, deserves to be lived and done—despite difficulties, perhaps failures, despite the solitude and pressure you can feel. And believe me, there was sometimes a bitter feeling of paying the price for broken paths. Yes, I think it deserves to be lived, not only for those who do it, but because these projects move the lines, open barriers, open frontiers. Thanks to these projects, it's not just the people doing them—the whole industry advances, the whole ecosystem evolves and learns. That's why we must support these projects, help them, be open, show solidarity so that they continue to rain down and people don't stop doing them. I'll end this little speech with a quote—not Elon Musk, but Nelson Mandela, which I love: 'In life, I never lose; either I win or I learn.' I think this is very valid for the collective, for the fashion ecosystem. I think that's why French Touch exists. So thank you, BPI, for making us win together.