Inspirational Woman: Caprice Bourret | Businesswoman, model & actress

Caprice Bourret

Caprice Bourret is an award-winning model, businesswoman and philanthropist.

Having shot to fame in the 1990s, Caprice’s break-through front cover was Vogue Magazine. She is often referred to as ‘one of the most photographed women in the world’ and has appeared on more than 350 magazine covers across the globe and over 150 TV shows and films. From her humble beginnings in Southern California, Caprice settled in England in her early 20’s and is now a true adopted Brit.

Caprice has been voted GQ Magazine’s Woman of the Year and Maxim’s International Woman of the Year for three years running.  Her American entrepreneurial spirit has seen her diversify into other areas such as music and acting, as well as, investing her first million in property at a young age.

Having starred in a number of West End productions, including the lead in Rent and Vagina Monologues.  Caprice bought the rights to the hit production, ‘Debbie Does Dallas the musical’ which she produced and starred in.

An avid philanthropist, she has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities and Caprice is patron to Woman’s Trust and Brain Tumour Research, Tikva, Jewish Care. Caprice and her partner Ty Comfort reside in London with their two beautiful children Jett and Jax.

More recently Caprice has also reignited her passion for acting and she is set to star in a number of films, including a lead role to be aired exclusively on Amazon Prime.

Caprice is known today for her business acumen having founded ‘By Caprice’ in 2006. The brand has gone onto become hugely successful and she has built up the business entirely on her own.  Firstly focusing on lingerie and due to huge success, By Caprice Home followed.  Known for its glamour, design, originality and high quality, the range is stocked in Dunhelm, Next, very.co.uk, Wayfair.co.uk to name a few. Caprice is also very proud to announce a By Caprice Home launch in America to Bed, Bath and Beyond in 2019.

In 2018 it was announced that CEO Caprice would license out ‘By Caprice Home’ to one of the world’s leading textiles suppliers, Sadaqat, dubbed the ‘Victoria Secrets of the bedding world’. The move is an integral part of the company’s expansion plans to launch in multiple global territories as well as developing the core product range.  This landmark move saw Sadaqat invest for the first time in a branded range.

Caprice uses her own success and life experiences to empower and inspire through motivational talks she gives to college students, entrepreneurs and CEOs.

Caprice Bourret

Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role

I’m Caprice –I moved to London from LA over 20 years ago. I started my career as a model and had the time of my life flying all around the world on glamourous photoshoots.  I earned my first million at 21 and one of my most memorable moments was presenting an award at the MTV Music Awards in Rotterdam!

When I hit 35 I knew I needed to have a career evolution and I decided to convince Debenhams to do a lingerie licensing deal – totally almost unheard of at the time.   As the brand evolved I bought back the licence and did everything in house for a long while.  By Caprice Products have gone from strength to strength and By Caprice Home (a range of stunning bedding and home products) is doing really well. To cope with customer demand and grow the brand internationally (By Caprice has landed Dunelm and Bed Bath and Beyond) I have partnered up with the leaders of the textile world, the amazing, Sadaqat.

We have lots of exciting plans in the pipeline.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career?

I did a couple of pageants as a teenager, really just to make my mom happy, although it opened up a whole new world to me which I embraced. I got scouted and signed to a huge modelling agent in NYC. I followed her advice and stayed in NYC for two years and then with my families blessing I moved to London where I went onto feature across hundreds of covers worldwide.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

In Europe, it’s very different to the USA. It’s still a man’s world here. It’s changing, but the concept is still prevalent. As women we have better intuition but we have tendencies to make decisions and sometimes act emotionally, which can be detrimental. It’s important as women to play to our many strengths; we’re multi-taskers, we’re leaders, we’re fighters and we’re grafters.

Caprice Bourret, Mumpreneur of the Year award

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

Without a doubt my children. I am a very proud Mom!

What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?

I believe the harder you work, the luckier you get. When you get knocked down, get back up. You will get knocked down so much but your success is not giving in and getting back up. Keep your focus on the goal!

How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?

I think mentoring is fantastic and boy do I wish I had had a mentor. I find a lot of people are quite closed books and don’t give their secrets away or want to help upcoming talent be successful.  I say we should be more open to encouraging and guiding the next generation and our peers. I want to definitely do more one-to-one mentoring in the future.  Sometimes it can be the little things that make the most difference to people lives, for example, last week, I took an opportunity at a social engagement to recommend someone to a big company boss and cheekily told them they need to give my contact a job! Guess what? They have an interview!

If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Parity, what would it be?

I believe total transparency would be really beneficial. In terms of gender pay gap particularly, women should be earning the exact same as men for the same job, it is just not acceptable in today’s world. We always seem to be on the back foot.  We need to keep having these conversations and challenging pay and pushing for those top business positions!

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self what would it be?

Don’t stress so much, it does more harm than good.

What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?

Over the next 12-18 months we are working on a retail strategy to grow By Caprice globally. We have just landed Bed Bath and Beyond in the States which is super exciting!

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