Connoisseur of luxury products, digital marketer by trade and art-enthusiast at heart, Amélie DEMAN is quite the jack of many trades. She is of Vietnamese descent, but was adopted at 2 months old and raised in Lille, France which she describes as a “dynamic” and young city full of art galleries and museums. Although the city is ideal for her passion of art, Amelie still found herself wanting to explore outside the borders of Lille and expand her professional network.
Amélie’s digital journey began in undergrad where she studied art history. While on campus, she jump started the idea to create a magazine for the students, by the students. Her contributions to the magazine was her first experience with marketing and project management. Amelie came to the conclusion that she wanted to further explore the field as a career — realizing that art history was “too much theoretical and not very practical.”
It was then that she decided to pursue a Master’s degree. Amelie managed to narrow her search down to Skema and one other school since they were the only graduate schools that offered global luxury programs. She eventually chose Skema for their Luxury and Fashion Management two year masters program. After completing her first year, Amelie decided to take a gap year and delve into the professional world.
On a whim, Amélie applied to a high-end tea product start-up in Paris called COLLECTION T. The manager entrusted Amélie with major responsibilities on the digital side, and it was then that she truly realized this was something she wanted to pursue, but on a larger scale. Her ambitious vision landed her a position at Chanel in Paris where she worked in the beauty department helping with the Digital Artistic Direction for their beauty and skin care campaigns.
She found both internships to be enlightening experiences and shared how her interest in luxury and the digital space intertwined. Amélie also explained how creating a digital experience for luxury brands is new and exciting since it’s constantly adapting to the modern consumer: “luxury houses try to integrate innovating and creative digital strategies. Many people think that luxury and digital are not compatible, that the best experience is in shop and not online, that digital degrades luxury experience. As I worked for Chanel at the Digital Artistic Direction, I realized that luxury house like Chanel or Dior are willing to create unique and strong online campaign and they work a lot to improve their website, make it more appealing, more precise, more interactive and to create a real digital experience.”
But once her gap year came to an end, Amélie had a change of heart after finishing the two internships and speaking with Skema digital marketing students and decided to spend her last year studying digital marketing instead of luxury and fashion management. Her first semester was spent on the Suzhou campus and second at the Sophia Antipolis campus.
Now that she’s completed her studies, and confirmed her passion for marketing and luxury, Amélie hopes to continue her career in France where most luxury brands are located — although she is open to living in other locations as well. Amélie hopes all of these experiences come full circle and eventually allow her to create a creative space: something different, original, like a blog.
Outside of the professional world, you can find Amélie listening to the latest jazz/rock/pop/hip-hop/electro/techno tunes, reading classic novels and cultural/fashion magazines, catching up on the latest or classic films, exchanging letters with her boyfriend (who lives in Berlin) discussing topics related to art, literature or new fashion designers/trends and even learning new recipes. In fact, Amélie enjoys “fine dining” so much that taking into consideration what she eats, what kind of products she purchases and from whom, where, how they are produced has become a craft she takes to heart. Sharing this passion with others is even more important to the point that Amélie often organizes dinners, tea time and “apéros” where she invites people who don’t know each other to meet while she serves as “perfect lady of the house.”
Not only does Amélie enjoy indulging herself in artsy spaces, but also makes time to give back to the community. Her volunteer work began in undergrad through Habitat for Humanity, and has extended to her recent involvement with the affiliate group, Le relais (groupe Emmaus) and local soup kitchens.
Such an amazing individual with much to offer! If you want to learn more, check out Amélie’s Instagram. Thanks for sharing your story Amélie et bonne chance!
