Paper Trail

On the occasion of Assouline's 30th anniversary, Alexandre Assouline reveals how sustaining relationships is the key to long-lived success and why books will always be relevant

- Aaina Bhargava

Best known for its coffee table books pairing a strong sense of aesthetics with specialised insights, Assouline is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the luxury publishing industry this year.

Current chief of operations, brand and strategy Alexandre Assouline, the son of company founders Prosper and Martine Assouline, chatted with Tatler Homes during his recent sojourn in Asia about how the brand has evolved, why print will always have a place in our digital world, and his recently launched digital magazine and podcast. 

How has Assouline evolved in its three decades in the business?

Well, the first office was in my bedroom, started by my parents when I was just about one year old. They started making books out of passion for their friends or things that were interesting to them.

Fast forward 30 years, and it’s the same way, just bigger and more. We use the same printer that we did for the first book. The evolution started with passion, and shortly after they saw that there was something special there, and there was a gap in the market for beautifully crafted books, which were essentially objects with great, important content that come with a point of view, so we developed a business out of it.

In 2006, we opened our first store to really showcase what the brand is about. We curated an experience of viewing books; controlling the smell, the music, the visual merchandising, and that was really the start of what the brand is today. Now, we have 20 stores all around the world, and we constantly develop new product categories as well, like home fragrances and lifestyle-related objects.

What’s the secret behind Assouline’s longevity?