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The Word & Cachemire Coton et Soie Advertorial
02 03 04 Why we like
Cachemire
cated team. “The amount of people involved
behind-the-scenes in the boutique’s every
aspect is often overlooked” confi rms our
host “Our sales team do an especially wonderful
job and are not only essential to the
boutique’s success but also to our clients’
satisfaction”
On the graphic design side, Sophie works
with award-winning agency BaseDesign for
its overall identity – spanning everything
from shopping bags to Cachemire’s now
eponymous “Images de Saisons” mailings,
announcing a new season’s arrivals. “Sophie
put her trust in us when we still were
a three-man agency” says one-third of BaseDesign
founding trio Thierry Brunfaut.
And although the agency’s three founders
aren’t directly involved with Cachemire
anymore, they nonetheless remain close to
the boutique and still very much feel part of
its extended family.
Marie Raynal, of TWL, echoes this
family-like bond: “Our relationship with
Cachemire is more of a partnership than a
typical business relation”. Indeed, most of
the partners and colleagues we spoke with
all expressed a heightened sense of belonging
and responsibility with regards to the
success of the boutique. This even goes beyond
the remits of Cachemire’s inner circle:
when The Word was visiting, the constant
fl ow of women entering the store felt more
like a family reunion than your usual shopping
duties.
Barbara Ferret, who mainly is responsible
for Cachemire’s merchandising and
window-dressing, also occupies a crucial
position in the boutique’s inner workings.
Capitalizing on the tactile experience that
is shopping, Barbara makes it sound more
like pleasure than an actual job: “Spending
eight hours playing around with clothes and
touching everything from cashmere and silk
to Egyptian cotton and pure merino wool is
a luxury” she says. And we don’t fi nd it too
hard to believe her.
But all this would be omitting another integral
part to the Cachemire Empire: its trousers-only
boutique and its showroom. The
boutique, Suite, is a temple to trousers and a
welcome reminder that the best things in life
often come from specialised, single-product
stores. The showroom, above the Cachemire
boutique, showcases those brands which
Sophie represents in Belgium. From Loyd
Maish (“A magnifi cent use of leather” says
window-dresser Barbara Ferret) to Heschung
and BlancKelly (Sophie’s own design,
“elegant, modern and easy to wear” states
TWL’s Marie Raynal) its selection is yet a
further confi rmation of the good taste prevalent
in the universe that is Cachemire.
So consider yourself warned: Cachemire if
you can…
Cachemire Coton et Soie
Rue Franz Merjay Straat 53
1050 Brussels
01. Founder & Owner
Sophie Helsmoortel
02. Cachemire Girls Nathalie,
Maïté and Christine
03. BaseDesign’s Pierre and Aurore
— Because we like places
where everyone knows our name
— Because we like not having to
go all the way downtown for our
shopping fi xe
— Because we like places
which make us look unique
— Because we like receiving
Base Design-created mailings
Cachemire
in Numbers
33. Number of seasons since
day one
668. Times windows have been
changed
42. Amount of Base Designcreated
mailings
792. Amount of days spent
abroad looking for new products
THE THIRD WORD — 69