IT’S LIKE BEING A START-UP AGAIN - I’M WORKING HARDER THAN EVER FROM HOME
ANNOUSHKA DUCAS
AnnoushkA DucAs founded her eponymous jewellery company in 2009. she has four children, aged 26, 24, 22, and 18, and lives in Bosham, West sussex. ‘We Will survive. But it’s going to be really tough for everyone,’ says Annoushka Ducas, whose fine jewellery — worn by celebrities such as emma Watson and Gwyneth Paltrow — is sold in luxury department stores and in her flagship boutique near Bond Street, as well as online.
in her entire career, spanning the founding of links of london in 1990 to its sale in 2006 and the launch of Annoushka Jewellery in 2009, she has ‘never encountered a challenge like this’.
like Suzanne Brock (see box below left), she predicts a trend towards local shopping in smaller stores once we’re out of lockdown.
‘People are nervous of big department stores and there’s a huge drive to support smaller brands and shops instead,’ she says.
Still, after an agonising wait for online business to pick up, she’s at last seeing signs of increased traffic to her website and better sales online (10 per cent of profits from these sales are going to the Coronavirus Appeal at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South london, to fund mental health support for NHS staff).
‘People were glued to the news at the start, terrified.
They definitely weren’t looking at jewellery. But we can’t stay like that for ever. life goes on and we’re slowly seeing our customers adapt and start returning to the website.
‘We still have birthdays and anniversaries, after all, even if we can’t go out.
‘Oddly, i’m working harder than ever. it’s a bit like being a start-up again — having to make tough decisions, seeing how things have become overcomplicated and working out how to simplify them.’
She has furloughed 90 per cent of the team and worries about those isolating alone. Because for her, the unforeseen silver lining is in spending more time with her four grown-up children — two boys and two girls.
‘We’ve all had to rub along and get to know each other on different levels again. i’ve had to adapt probably most of all —– i’m not used to people borrowing my clothes or finding my laptop charger gone! But it’s been a very special time.’
Annoushka talks of her jewellery in terms of heirlooms or emotional ‘talismans’, but at a time of rapidly shifting priorities, the luxury market is vulnerable — not only to financial downturn, but to a less tangible backlash against wealth.
‘We’ll come out of this with a whole different perspective on life,’ she agrees. ‘We’ll have a greater appreciation for friends and family, and people who put their lives on the line for others.’