Chaumet sees dazzling opportunities in China

To better resonate with Chinese consumers, Chaumet held an exhibition called Tiara Dream in Beijing in November.

"We are constantly trying to both tell the long story and then talk to the generations of today in today's modalities," Mansvelt said.

Those efforts dovetail with a generational shift in China's luxury market, as Generation Z consumers are becoming a major consumer group.

A research report from consulting firm Oliver Wyman said China's luxury fashion market in 2021 is being propelled by a cohort of 1.5 million consumers whose average annual spending on luxury products has exceeded 40,000 yuan.

Among them, 50 percent bought luxury fashion items for the first time between October 2020 and September 2021. It is this surge in first-time luxury fashion consumers that is expected to be responsible for 88 percent of China's luxury fashion market growth in 2021, Oliver Wyman said.

"A lot of consumers who might have spent money on traveling before other things, especially younger Gen-Z consumers, have instead entered the luxury category," said Imke Wouters, retail and consumer goods partner at Oliver Wyman, adding 40 percent of the first-time luxury consumers surveyed were under 25 years old.

Chaumet noticed the shift quite early on, and it is working to better engage Gen Z consumers with digital technologies. During its offline Tiara Dream exhibition, for instance, Chaumet also launched an online exhibition on WeChat and reported a viewership of more than 2.5 million.

"We are using the means Gen Z consumers use, but at the same time, it's also a generation that is attached to authentic houses that tell a real story over the long term. To reach them, we cannot only use the tools of modernity, but it is also by telling who we are, authentically," Mansvelt said. "We want a balance between modernity and the past with the right dosage."