PARIS — Luxury association Comité Colbert brought brands and massive names together to advertise careers in craftsmanship to students.

Sidney Toledano, LVMH Fashion Group chair and newly elected president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, joined French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak on stage, together with Minister for Education and Vocational Training Carole Grandjean and Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Trade, Crafts and Tourism Olivia Gregoire.

The afternoon panel closed the three-day educational fair “Les de(ux)mains du luxe,” Comité Colbert’s clever play on words referencing the long run of handicrafts.

Despite business booming for the posh sector, firms across the board have expressed difficulty in recruiting young artisans to hold forward traditional methods.

Toledano reminded the gang that Louis Vuitton, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Louis-François Cartier were all artisans before they were “designers.”

“They were artisans, they were entrepreneurs, they were storytellers,” he said. “Their business power rested on their savoir faire.”

Toledano was careful to notice that the day’s event was to proceed the continued quest for education and elevation of craft. He said that in his youth he grew up surrounded by artisans, but young people today are more separated from craft.

“It’s an issue that exists for our industry,” he said. “How we transmit to the subsequent generation is an actual query — is it stronger word of mouth, marketing, storytelling? — to transmit the opportunities of those careers.”

Toledano said it’s the responsibility of presidency programs and the private sector luxury firms to lift the status of expertise careers.

“The métiers de la major should be reinvented and young people have to discover the métiers d’art — they’re in constant evolution, innovation and we’d like to transmit the concept of savoir faire,” said Minister Malak.

Malak said the French government is committed to 5 pillars of promotion for craftsmanship: spreading knowledge of the professions; education and internships alongside experienced craftspeople; investing in innovation and recent technology to transmit age-old techniques before the disappear; ensuring crafts will not be just centered in Paris but dispersed throughout France, and at last, that they grow internationally as well.

She cited cross-cultural programs to advertise French craftsmanship within the U.S. and Japan and said the federal government is establishing residency programs in Africa and China to coach artisans abroad.

“There’s a fantastic potential of not only exporting our French savoir faire, but in addition learning from other countries and creating exchanges and cooperating with them, since it’s also this cooperation that can help reaching recent markets, recent residents which might be concerned about it, and likewise pushing the boundaries of sustainability on this field and innovation on this field,” said Malak.

Other guests included LVMH director of expertise development Alexandre Boquel, Van Cleef & Arpels president Nicolas Bos, Christofle president Emilie Metge and Hermès director of human resources Vincent Vaillant.

“Luxury is certainly one of the things France is most known for — together with perhaps football and cooking,” joked Christofle’s Metge. “We all know how you can rejoice luxury and savoir faire, but crucial thing we’ve to be mindful is that luxury, without the subsequent generation, can die out.”

Panelists agreed that government investment in manufacturing is very important, but that educating and recruiting the subsequent generation is essential to keeping luxury alive. While business has been booming and luxury firms have been recording record profits, recruitment stays a weak link.

All the panelists agreed that while craftsmanship is on the core, communication is the important thing.

“Now we have to have the ability to transmit to the subsequent gen to make sure that we will stay at the highest level of producing and the solution to design products and luxury goods,” said Metge, adding that luxury cannot proceed to gate keep.

“We want to transmit to the brand new generation, but make sure that you don’t ‘own’ the savoir faire and that you just are here to pass it on to the subsequent generation. Be more democratic — capable of seek advice from any generation and never only in a single luxury, very high and elitist category, but we’d like to seek advice from teenagers. That is crucial message that we would like to have today,” she added.

Students are likely to deal with the ideas of being a designer or stylist, but students concerned about the art of fashion often don’t know in regards to the work that goes on behind the scenes.

“A majority of these professions, prior to now, have been hidden,” said LVMH’s Boquel. “There’s been an opposition between the abstract professions versus the manual professions. The most effective solution to change that is to speak in regards to the image we’ve. We wish to showcase the fantastic thing about the professions and to clarify that there’s expansion of development for talent. It’s an enormous opportunity so that you can create your skilled path inside luxury.”

Following the panel, Toledano toured the room at Paris’ innovation hub Station F, visiting various stations from a few of the 23 luxury brands on show. LVMH presented the programs of its Institut des Métiers d’Excellence, Van Cleef & Arpels offered a workshop to advertise its L’Ecole des Arts Joailliers, while Cartier presented its Haute École de Joaillerie.

Léonard demonstrated pattern making, Chanel showed the creation of a bag, and Christofle demonstrated gilding techniques.

Toledano even stopped by the Dior display to talk with a seamstress who was working on a tulle couture gown.

The event wrapped up a three-day educational fair that brought greater than 4,000 students to find out about métiers d’art by the hands of the posh fashion houses.