With the impending arrival of The Wedding Season, the other day I did a spot of online gift window shopping to find a few ideas for the happy couples who have invited me to their nuptials. In doing so, I stumbled upon the website www.Savoir-Faire.com launched by Princess Kasia Al Thani (of Qatar) in November last year. The site claims to offer the ultimate in online luxury gifting and, at first glance, I could see dozens of options for myself (as well as the future ‘Mr and Mrs’s… I suppose). I met up with Princess Kasia for a coffee to discuss her new venture…
Your family is predominantly based in Paris – why did you choose London as your base for www.Savoir-Faire.com?
Well, it was always going to be one of the two cities – Paris and London being my favourite stylish locations. To be honest, in the end it came down to practicality and my English is much better than my French! However, nowadays as an online company, it’s so easy to co-ordinate and interact remotely that it almost doesn’t matter where you are based. The other day I (from Paris) was corresponding simultaneously with Rachel Zoe (who has a ‘favourites’ page on the site) in LA, her publicist in New York, a journalist in Singapore and www.Savoir-Faire.com HQ in London. In other words, I was working in five different time zones!!! As we distribute to countries all over the world our base is immaterial – it’s our efficiency that’s key!
Online stores are proving to be very popular this year with Natalie Massinet’s launch of www.TheOutnet.com and www.ASOS.com celebrating massive turnovers for the last fiscal year. What would you say are www.Savoir-Faire.com’s unique selling points?
My reason for creating the site was that I noticed an absence of luxury gifting one-stop online shops. We aim to bring some of the world’s most beautiful and unique brands together and to present them in a way in which anyone would be proud to bestow upon friend, family or colleague. Our beautiful wrapping, efficient service and original ideas put us ahead of our competition and make us the ultimate in luxury online gifting.
Excitingly, www.Savoir-Faire.com is set to exclusively launch the new Oud scent by Kilian Hennessey (the grandson of the founder of LVMH) at the beginning of next month and you are offering a pre-ordering service which indicates that you think it’s going to be a great success! What will you attribute its success to? What do you think is so special about the fragrance?
Oud is such a mysterious and powerful scent – it’s been used since the 15th Century as a fragrance, but discovery of the raw material dates back to around 1000 BC. It’s the smell of Arabian nights; it’s thick and musky and those who love it REALLY love it. We’ve already got a waiting list actually so to avoid disappointment go to the website and make your request.
I hear that you designed the beautiful RYM bracelets which are available on the site at £14,000 each. Are you going to expand the RYM range? And if so, will all of your designs have an Arabic theme?
I’m so thrilled that I have created this collection and that I’m able to incorporate my love for Islamic culture and art into my designs. Next month the RYM earrings will be available – they are going to be diamond and turquoise and I think they will look exquisite, especially with an RYM bangle to accompany them.
I’m going to a friend’s wedding at the beginning of July. She’s an English Rose, a domestic goddess, painfully stylish and a real giggle. What would you recommend I included in her www.Savoir-Faire.com gift box?
Firstly, I would recommend one of Anya Hindmarch’s adorable loose change purses. The collection is embossed with the different girly labels ‘Cocktail Cash,’ ‘Sugar Rush,’ ‘Margarita Money’ and ‘Beach Bar Kitty’ - the ‘Beach Bar Kitty’ would be ideal for a beachy honeymoon (although hopefully her new husband will fill it up!)… A By Kilian candle would be perfect to accompany the new couple’s romantic evenings and a Marie Daage delicately designed tea set is fabulous for a new and stylish homemaker.
photography by Dana Hargitay
