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Building contemporary relevance in Luxury without compromising heritage, craft or emotional value

By Reinier H. Labadie, Client Partner based in Zürich, Switzerland.

July 2026

In this Executives Unfiltered conversation, I discussed with Nina Müller, CEO of Lalique Group, how luxury can become more contemporary and emotionally relevant while preserving the craftsmanship, heritage and human touch that give a maison its meaning.

What is your role today – and what is Lalique in one sentence to the customer?

“Today my role is to lead Lalique Group into its next chapter with clarity, respect for the house, and a lot of energy for what still lies ahead.

And Lalique in one sentence? Lalique is a world of crystal, craftsmanship and emotion, beautiful things that are never ordinary, made by human hands and meant to last.” 

What was the first area you chose to look at with fresh eyes when you joined?

“The first thing I looked at was not one product, or one market, or one store. It was the whole house.

I wanted to understand who we really are, as a brand, as a group, and as an organisation. So, I listened. I went into the business, into the numbers, into the history, and above all into Wingen-sur-Moder, because the manufacture is the heart of Lalique.

What I found was extraordinary: passion, expertise, and a deep love for the craft. But I also saw that this soul needed to be expressed more clearly and more contemporarily — in our communication, our stores, our brand world, and in how the different parts of the group speak to each other.

So, the first fresh look was really this: how do we protect the soul, but release more of its energy?”

Where have you been most willing to challenge luxury orthodoxy – and why?

“I have challenged the idea that luxury has to be distant to be desirable.

For me, true luxury is not about being cold, intimidating, or hidden behind codes only a few people understand. It is about meaning, provenance, craft, and emotion. It can be extremely refined and still warm. It can be exclusive and still human.

That matters for Lalique, because our difference is not a loud logo. It is the hand of the artisan, the light in the crystal, the story behind the piece. In a market that has sometimes confused price with value, I think our responsibility is to bring the conversation back to substance.

Luxury does not become stronger by becoming louder. It becomes stronger when it becomes more truthful.”

How do you define your own agenda in a strongly owner-shaped company – and how do you and the Chairman divide responsibilities in the “where to” and the “how”?

“I see it as a privilege to work in a company with such a strong entrepreneurial owner. Silvio Denz has shaped Lalique with vision, courage and very long-term conviction. That gives the company something rare: patience.

My agenda is not to come in and replace that vision. My role is to translate it into focus, rhythm and execution together with the teams.

The Chairman is very important in the “where to”: the long-term direction, the entrepreneurial ambition, the belief in the Lalique universe. My role as CEO is very much the “how”: how we organise, how we prioritise, how we build the teams, how we make the brand more relevant, how we deliver performance without compromising the soul.

Of course, these two worlds meet constantly. Strategy without execution is just a beautiful idea. Execution without vision becomes mechanical. The strength is when both are in real dialogue.”

You joined Lalique from fashion, luxury and omni-channel retail, not an artisanal maison – what does that let you see that the house may not see itself, and where did you have to earn the atelier’s trust?

“Coming from fashion, jewellery, crystal and omni-channel retail gives me a very strong customer lens. I look at the full journey: how someone discovers us, how they enter our world, how they feel in a boutique, what story they understand, what they carry with them after the experience.

Sometimes, when a house has extraordinary savoir-faire, it can almost take its own magic for granted. You live with it every day, so you forget how breathtaking it is for someone seeing it for the first time.

What I could bring was that outside-in view: we must show more of the hand, more of the process, more of the people, because that is where the emotion is.

But the atelier’s trust cannot be demanded. It has to be earned. You earn it by showing respect. By not arriving with ready-made answers. By understanding that in Wingen, the rhythm is not set by a marketing calendar but by the furnace, the material, and the hand of the artisan. Once people feel that you are there to protect the craft, not to exploit it, then trust can begin.”

Where is tradition non-negotiable at Lalique – and where must it be reinterpreted?

“The non-negotiable is the craft. The hand. The mastery of crystal. The respect for the material, for the gesture, for the people who carry knowledge that cannot simply be replaced.

Also non-negotiable is the link to René Lalique: nature, light, poetry, audacity. These are not decorative references for us; they are the DNA.

Where we must reinterpret is in the language around it. The way we show the brand, the way we design spaces, the way we speak to new generations, the way crystal enters contemporary interiors and contemporary life.

Heritage cannot be treated like a museum piece. René Lalique himself was daring. So if we want to be faithful to him, we also have to be brave.”

Where do you draw the line between modernization and dilution of the brand?

“The line is very clear for me: modernization strengthens the essence; dilution distracts from it.

If a new project makes the craft more visible, the brand more relevant, the Lalique world more emotionally powerful — then it can be modern and still deeply authentic.

But if something is only done because it is fashionable, because another brand is doing it, or because it creates short-term noise, then we have to be very careful. Fame is not a strategy. Visibility is not the same as desirability.

The question I ask is: does this still feel like Lalique when you remove the logo? If the answer is no, we should not do it.”

What aspects of craftsmanship can be scaled – and which must never be?

“The story of craftsmanship can be scaled. Education can be scaled. Access to the world behind the object can be scaled. We can use film, social media, events, retail experiences and hospitality to help more people understand what goes into a Lalique creation.

Certain tools around the craft can also evolve: digital design, 3D modelling, better processes, better planning. Technology can support precision.

But the soul of the craft must never be scaled in an industrial sense. The human gesture, the finishing, the judgement of the eye, the patience with the material that cannot become a shortcut.

For me, technology is a tool. The artisan remains the author.”

In a softer luxury cycle, how do you balance price discipline and desirability: do you prioritize margin protection or invest through the cycle?

“You have to do both, but not blindly.

In a softer cycle, price discipline is essential because luxury loses credibility when it panics. You cannot train customers to wait for discounts and then expect them to believe in long-term value.

At the same time, you must invest through the cycle — but in the right things. Not noise. Not overproduction. Not empty marketing. You invest in desirability: in craft, in storytelling, in client relationships, in experiences, in the quality of the brand world.

For Lalique, the answer is not to become louder or cheaper. It is to become clearer. When the market is softer, clients become more selective. That is when substance matters most.”

What is your earliest warning signal of brand overstretching – and what do you do first when you see it?

“The earliest warning signal is when the brand needs too much explanation.

If we have to work too hard to justify why Lalique is in a space, with a partner, or in a category, then we should stop and look again. The connection should feel natural, perhaps surprising, but natural.

The first thing I do is bring it back to the centre: what is the link to the craft, to René Lalique, to our world of light, nature, poetry and savoir-faire? If the link is weak, we either reshape the idea, or we do not do it.

The discipline is not to say yes to every opportunity. The discipline is to protect the right to expand.”

What has been your most difficult people decision as CEO – and what did it teach you?

“The most difficult people decisions are never the technical ones. They are the ones where you respect the person, but you know the role or the moment requires something different.

I have learned that kindness is not the opposite of clarity. In fact, people deserve clarity. Avoiding a difficult conversation may feel gentle in the moment, but it is rarely respectful in the long run.

What these decisions teach me again and again is that leadership is not about being liked every day. It is about being fair, being transparent, and keeping the organisation healthy enough for people to do their best work.”

Which leadership profiles are hardest to attract today – and why? How do you de-risk senior hires?

“The hardest profiles to attract are leaders who can live in tension.

People who understand luxury and performance. People who respect heritage but are not nostalgic. People who can work with creative intuition and financial discipline. People who can be strategic and still close to the teams. That combination is rare.

I de-risk senior hires by looking beyond the CV. Of course, experience matters. But I am very interested in attitude: how does this person listen? How do they make decisions when things are not clear? Do they respect craft? Do they create trust? Can they handle ambiguity without becoming political?

And I involve people. Senior hiring should not be a lonely decision. You need different perspectives, because culture fit is not about similarity. It is about whether someone can add strength without damaging trust.”

What leadership behaviour are you consciously modelling this year?

“Clarity with warmth. I believe people need direction, especially in transformation. But direction should not come through fear or distance. I want to model a way of leading where we can be ambitious and human at the same time.

That means saying clearly what matters, making decisions, following through, But also listening, staying open, and giving people room to contribute.

For me, culture does not change because you put values on a wall. It changes because people see what is tolerated, what is celebrated, and how leaders behave when things are difficult.”

Rapid-Fire Questions:

• A brand you admire for leadership rather than marketing.
  “Brunello Cucinelli. Not because of one campaign, but because there is a very clear philosophy behind the company- A belief in human dignity, craft, place and long-term thinking. Whether one agrees with every choice or not, you feel the leadership.”
• A decision rule you rely on when data is incomplete.
  “I ask: what is the decision that stays closest to our values and gives us the most room to learn? Data is important, but in leadership you rarely have perfect data. So, I combine facts, experience, intuition and then I make the decision clear enough that the team can move.”
• The best leadership advice you have received, in one sentence.
  “Do not confuse being kind with avoiding clarity.”
• If we meet again in 2028, what should be true about Lalique?
  “I would hope that Lalique feels even more alive. That the manufacture in Wingen is still unmistakably the heart of the house. That more people around the world understand the beauty and complexity of our craft. That our boutiques and hospitality spaces are not just places of transaction, but places of emotion and discovery. I would hope that we have grown selectively, profitably and with discipline but without losing the poetry. And most of all, I would like people to say: Lalique stayed completely true to itself, and somehow became more contemporary, more human, and more relevant than ever.”

Bringing our conversation to a close, what stands out is a clear belief that luxury becomes stronger when it is more truthful, not louder. Nina Müller’s perspective shows that transformation in a heritage maison is not about replacing the past, but about making its craft, emotion and relevance more visible to today’s customers. For Lalique, the path forward lies in protecting the soul of the house while giving it a more contemporary expression, with leadership that combines discipline, clarity and warmth.