LVMH - The Luxury Goods Conglomerate

[Nimsay]

I attended the Louis Vuitton event, and I have to say—it was quite an enjoyable experience.

The team provided an impressive amount of product knowledge. There were dedicated representatives for men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories, as well as furniture and timepieces. Naturally, I spent my time speaking with the men's RTW representative, as my interest in Nicolas Ghesquière's work has waned—he feels like old news at this point.

One of the most interesting takeaways was about Pharrell’s direction for LV Homme. He intentionally developed a cut distinct from other designer lines, which, as I previously noted, makes the collection stand out in a truly original way. When I brought this up before, some people doubted me—someone even sarcastically asked if I was serious. Well, yes, I was serious. And now LV has confirmed it.

Pharrell also placed strong emphasis on proper grading across sizes—something many luxury labels struggle with. His goal was to ensure that even a 7-foot, 300-pound, athletically built individual would look exceptional in LV Homme. According to the reps, they coined this the “Athletic Cut,” and I think they absolutely succeeded.

As a parting gift, they gave me a full-size bottle of Imagination which interestingly shares a note with Bois d’Argent by Dior Homme—my all-time favorite fragrance. It was a spot-on gift. It's also worth noting that Hedi Slimane’s influence continues to resonate—even two decades after Bois d’Argent debuted. Not to mention all the other perfumes like Valentino that also used the same BdA note.

They also connected me with their top sales representative in South Florida, who proactively reached out to me. That level of attention was impressive and appreciated. I’ve since visited her and picked up 3 pair of the new release sneakers - they will look great with my LV bell bottoms, a belt with a discreet LV logo and a silk dupioni shirt. Im not an LV bag boy so I didn’t even look at them. Im also getting ready to pull the trigger on the fall collection as soon as that becomes available. Im planning to get a lot of pieces from that collection.

One thing I value deeply is when a sales rep has not just knowledge, but strong personal taste and opinions. I don’t just want someone who knows inventory—I want someone whose judgment I actually trust. A great sales rep should be able to guide clients not just based on availability or trends, but based on a refined eye and confidence in what’s truly worth owning. That’s what makes the experience seamless, and it’s why I trust this particular rep fully. She sends me things she thinks I will like and is pretty dead on.

Anyway LV just captured me as a customer. I will be wearing so much LV Homme.

 

[Nimsay]

I also got invited to preview the Next Gen of Dior Homme - RTW shoes and fragrance. Which I did at their NYC office. From my understanding they were bringing 10 clients in to look at it. I signed NDAs so I cant say too much. I gave them my honest opinions and do not expect to become a Dior boy again based on what I saw.

 

[Nimsay]

Not the fashion spot falling victim to Chinese propaganda. Imagine believing anything China says.

 

[GRCF]

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/lvmhs-arnault-blames-brussels-if-us-eu-do-not-find-fix-tariffs-2025-04-17/

You would think that attending DJT's inauguration would mean you have a direct line to him or SOME kind of relationship with him, therefore could have talked him out of or tariffs on Fashion and leather goods. Mr. Arnault is misdirecting is ire, which demonstrates how impuissant he really is outside of France. He already bended the knee, what's more groveling to the person who is to blame for this trade war? It's very much the emperor has no clothes with Arnault. What a sycophant.

On another note, it is too bad he avoided court by settling with his former chef. Reading the couple of texts between his wife and the chef was very entertaining, I wanted more. It was like a French version of Desperate Housewives.

 

[rivegaucheface]

On another note, it is too bad he avoided court by settling with his former chef. Reading the couple of texts between his wife and the chef was very entertaining, I wanted more. It was like a French version of Desperate Housewives.

Do you have a link for this? I could use some laughter today.

 

[yslforever]

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/lvmhs-arnault-blames-brussels-if-us-eu-do-not-find-fix-tariffs-2025-04-17/

You would think that attending DJT's inauguration would mean you have a direct line to him or SOME kind of relationship with him, therefore could have talked him out of or tariffs on Fashion and leather goods. Mr. Arnault is misdirecting is ire, which demonstrates how impuissant he really is outside of France. He already bended the knee, what's more groveling to the person who is to blame for this trade war? It's very much the emperor has no clothes with Arnault. What a sycophant.

On another note, it is too bad he avoided court by settling with his former chef. Reading the couple of texts between his wife and the chef was very entertaining, I wanted more. It was like a French version of Desperate Housewives.

He has made a couple of unhinged comments recently. I know he's totally detached from reality, like really out-of-this-world and paranoid, but that aggravated in the last year. If I were still a shareholder, I'be be worried about his mental fitness and succession lack of plan...

(do you think they are going to hunt me down for this comment ?)

 

[vogue22]

Do you have a link for this? I could use some laughter today.

^ Ditto.

 

[GRCF]

Do you have a link for this? I could use some laughter today.

I think it was in Le Canard Enchaîné

LVMH : Bernard Arnault a fait salarier son cuisinier familial par Dior | Le Canard enchaîné

Licencié brutalement, l’ex-chef cuistot assigne le milliardaire aux prud’hommes. Il l'accuse de l’avoir fait travailler au noir à ses divers domiciles et pour……

www.lecanardenchaine.fr

I couldn’t subscribe because I don’t have a French card and for some reason you can pay for single issues with a foreign card but not a subscription.

Anyway, a friend had screenshots for the first round of sms but it looks like there were more.

 

[yslforever]

I think it was in Le Canard Enchaîné

LVMH : Bernard Arnault a fait salarier son cuisinier familial par Dior | Le Canard enchaîné

Licencié brutalement, l’ex-chef cuistot assigne le milliardaire aux prud’hommes. Il l'accuse de l’avoir fait travailler au noir à ses divers domiciles et pour……

www.lecanardenchaine.fr

I couldn’t subscribe because I don’t have a French card and for some reason you can pay for single issues with a foreign card but not a subscription.

Anyway, a friend had screenshots for the first round of sms but it looks like there were more.

View attachment 1373355 View attachment 1373356 View attachment 1373357 View attachment 1373358 View attachment 1373359 View attachment 1373360 View attachment 1373361 View attachment 1373362 View attachment 1373363 View attachment 1373364 View attachment 1373365 View attachment 1373366 View attachment 1373367 View attachment 1373368 View attachment 1373369

Ahahahaha, she sounds like all the "Marie-Chantal" around me.

 

[vogue22]

I think it was in Le Canard Enchaîné

LVMH : Bernard Arnault a fait salarier son cuisinier familial par Dior | Le Canard enchaîné

Licencié brutalement, l’ex-chef cuistot assigne le milliardaire aux prud’hommes. Il l'accuse de l’avoir fait travailler au noir à ses divers domiciles et pour……

www.lecanardenchaine.fr

I couldn’t subscribe because I don’t have a French card and for some reason you can pay for single issues with a foreign card but not a subscription.

Anyway, a friend had screenshots for the first round of sms but it looks like there were more.

View attachment 1373355 View attachment 1373356 View attachment 1373357 View attachment 1373358 View attachment 1373359 View attachment 1373360 View attachment 1373361 View attachment 1373362 View attachment 1373363 View attachment 1373364 View attachment 1373365 View attachment 1373366 View attachment 1373367 View attachment 1373368 View attachment 1373369

Well, it's not as bad as I thought, she just sounds like your typical annoying, rich, haughty French woman.

 

[GRCF]

Ahahahaha, she sounds like all the "Marie-Chantal" around me.

Yea my favorite was the fruit salad one which tbh it would have gone right over my head too lol

 

[style_expert]

France’s Richest Man Counted Trump as a Friend. He Still Faces Tariffs.​

The trade war has hurt the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy luxury empire. Bernard Arnault, head of the company, said a failure to strike a deal with President Trump would be “the fault of Brussels.”
By Liz Alderman

Reporting from the LVMH annual shareholders meeting in Paris’s Louvre Museum

For Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and head of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury goods empire, the year started off brightly. His friend President Trump extended a personal invitation to the inauguration on Jan. 20. Consumers in the United States, one of LVMH’s biggest markets, were snapping up the company’s Dior dresses and Tiffany jewelry.

Then came Mr. Trump’s tariffs — and a substantial plunge in the company’s share price.

“Until the end of February, everything was going very well,” Mr. Arnault told a packed auditorium of anxious shareholders Thursday at the LVMH annual general meeting in the Louvre Museum in Paris. “Then we came up against a global economic geopolitical situation that was turned upside down by potential customs duties.”

Now, he said, it is up to European leaders to resolve the trade war with Mr. Trump “amicably.” Any failure would be “the fault of Brussels,” he added, and would force LVMH to increase U.S. production and “avoid Europe.” Echoing a suggestion made recently by Elon Musk, one of Mr. Trump’s chief advisers, Mr. Arnault also called on European politicians to press for the creation of a free-trade zone between Europe and the United States.

LVMH is by no means the only global conglomerate to be whipped by Mr. Trump’s effort to rewire global trading. But as the world’s biggest luxury company, with 75 star brands, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tiffany and Dom Pérignon Champagne, it has become an industry bellwether.

LVMH stock, which started the year at more than 700 euros a share, has dived 35 percent since Mr. Trump’s first tariff announcement in February. On Tuesday, after LVMH reported a 3 percent decline in first-quarter global sales as the tariff threat slowed growth in the United States and China, its shares slumped another 8 percent, weighing down the entire luxury sector.

The plunge has knocked LVMH from its throne as the largest company by market capitalization in France’s CAC 40 index, while the title of the most valuable luxury company in the world went to Hermès, its chief rival.

As the company grapples with “uncharted territory,” Mr. Arnault said, LVMH could consider increasing prices in the United States to make up for the tariffs on a case-by-case basis.

By contrast, Hermès, which sells ultra-high-end luxury products, announced Thursday that it would fully shift the cost of tariffs for all its goods, including Kelly and Birkin handbags and Hermès scarves, to its wealthy American clientele, starting May 1.

LVMH is in a trickier situation. Although a huge portion of its customer base is made up of high-wealth individuals for whom a few thousand extra dollars do not mean much, the group had cultivated growing ranks of so-called aspirational consumers through a range of less expensive products, like perfumes and key chains.

Now, tariffs risk pushing up inflation, Mr. Arnault said, a shift that could cause those customers to pull back on spending. Higher inflation could, in turn, prompt higher interest rates, another phenomenon that would hurt consumers, he said.

Mr. Arnault declined to answer questions about whether he had spoken directly with Mr. Trump. But in France, speculation has run rampant that he may have Mr. Trump’s ear, especially after the French billionaire was seated along with his wife and two of his adult children just behind former Presidents Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. at the inauguration.

One of Mr. Arnault’s sons, Alexandre Arnault, had run Tiffany in New York, including a flagship store in Trump Tower, and had grown close to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, who traveled to Paris before the inauguration to get fitted for a Dior gown and a Givenchy suit. Mr. Trump hosted Alexandre Arnault at Mar-a-Lago last year, calling him “a young man on the move.”

And yet, in the Louvre on Thursday, the elder Mr. Arnault recounted how he had found himself spending countless hours with LVMH’s management teams, including his five adult children, who all have leadership posts, discussing how to navigate the tariff minefield.

The company has set aside a €10.5 billion cash cushion. Recently, it began stockpiling Champagne, wine and spirits shipped to the United States.

LVMH has three Louis Vuitton factories in the United States, including one that Mr. Arnault opened in 2017 in Texas alongside Mr. Trump, who flew the French billionaire on Air Force One to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Those facilities, as well as Tiffany workshops in the United States, could increase production in the event of prolonged tariffs, Mr. Arnault said, adding that he might open more factories there if needed.

But the main question, Mr. Arnault said, was whether to offer a wider range of luxury products to aspirational customers or to focus on pure luxury.

In the end, he said, a decision was made to “categorically refuse trivializing” its goods — in other words, to not go down-market. Instead, he said, “the goal is to offer the best quality.”

“Maybe we’ll see a little less growth” in the short term, Mr. Arnault said. “But that doesn’t bother me at all.”

source: NY TIMES

Not much news in this article, but it was still a fun read.
The "threat" to move more production from Europe to the US feels especially ill-timed, given the recent reports about how the Texas plant just doesn't work. For all the Trump appeasing in the world, maybe they should open even more of those fabulous factories in the US—just like the one in Texas we just read about. 😂
And then to wrap it all up by claiming their goal is to offer the best quality... iconic.

Perfect timing for Hermès to surpass LVMH.

 

[JohannesL]

It is so ironical that Trump would implicitly tax the rich even he didn't mean it.

 

[GRCF]

source: NY TIMES

Not much news in this article, but it was still a fun read.
The "threat" to move more production from Europe to the US feels especially ill-timed, given the recent reports about how the Texas plant just doesn't work. For all the Trump appeasing in the world, maybe they should open even more of those fabulous factories in the US—just like the one in Texas we just read about. 😂
And then to wrap it all up by claiming their goal is to offer the best quality... iconic.

Perfect timing for Hermès to surpass LVMH.

I think that the EU, if they are smart, know that there is no way he can just close factories in Europe and open them in the US du jour au lendemain. The US also lacks the skilled workforce to occupy however many factories he is planning on opening, unless they are okay with the quality of whatever they will produce will be on par with whatever is produced by Shein. Not to denigrate the skills of the immigrants (and let's face it, it is either Hispanic women or Asians in these places) who will be hired, but manufacturing clothes in the US is largely for mass produced stuff. Oh, but not if none of them are here because they've all been deported to El Salvador, so not sure where Bernard is planning to find the workforce he needs. I'm sure this is just a temper tantrum because he was made to look like a fool after attending the inauguration. He needs to take a seat.

I'be be worried about his mental fitness and succession lack of plan

There was an article somewhere stating exactly this, that investors should be worried about a lack of succession plan. Although I'm sure that he has an emergency plan just in case he keels over tomorrow (the gods would be so kind). I'm still certain that whatever plan he has includes a mix of Delphine and Frederic. Though, I have to say, I am with Louis Pisano in that the move of Frederic to Loro Piana is more of a "let's move you here because you couldn't possibly f*ck this one up" than a show of confidence. I would be nervous if I were investors because the eldest two don't seem to want it (anymore), the youngest no one is counting on, and the other two are found lacking, IMO. Alexandre, who seems to be the hungriest and showboatiest, would definitely turn the entire group into a partnership with Pharrell and a shrine to hypebeast, looking forward to that.

I don't know why he even has this pretense of extending his tenure every couple of years, he should just increase it to 100. Even if he had a successor in mind, Bernard would stay on until his last breath, even if he is mentally/physically unfit, his children are too polite and reverent to challenge him. Similar to Saadé, though I think he gave in at some point, very late, but still.

 

[yslforever]

I think that the EU, if they are smart, know that there is no way he can just close factories in Europe and open them in the US du jour au lendemain. The US also lacks the skilled workforce to occupy however many factories he is planning on opening, unless they are okay with the quality of whatever they will produce will be on par with whatever is produced by Shein. Not to denigrate the skills of the immigrants (and let's face it, it is either Hispanic women or Asians in these places) who will be hired, but manufacturing clothes in the US is largely for mass produced stuff. Oh, but not if none of them are here because they've all been deported to El Salvador, so not sure where Bernard is planning to find the workforce he needs. I'm sure this is just a temper tantrum because he was made to look like a fool after attending the inauguration. He needs to take a seat.


There was an article somewhere stating exactly this, that investors should be worried about a lack of succession plan. Although I'm sure that he has an emergency plan just in case he keels over tomorrow (the gods would be so kind). I'm still certain that whatever plan he has includes a mix of Delphine and Frederic. Though, I have to say, I am with Louis Pisano in that the move of Frederic to Loro Piana is more of a "let's move you here because you couldn't possibly f*ck this one up" than a show of confidence. I would be nervous if I were investors because the eldest two don't seem to want it (anymore), the youngest no one is counting on, and the other two are found lacking, IMO. Alexandre, who seems to be the hungriest and showboatiest, would definitely turn the entire group into a partnership with Pharrell and a shrine to hypebeast, looking forward to that.

I don't know why he even has this pretense of extending his tenure every couple of years, he should just increase it to 100. Even if he had a successor in mind, Bernard would stay on until his last breath, even if he is mentally/physically unfit, his children are too polite and reverent to challenge him. Similar to Saadé, though I think he gave in at some point, very late, but still.

It will end like the Rupert Murdoch’s story in 5 to 7 years.

 

[style_expert]

I think that the EU, if they are smart, know that there is no way he can just close factories in Europe and open them in the US du jour au lendemain. The US also lacks the skilled workforce to occupy however many factories he is planning on opening, unless they are okay with the quality of whatever they will produce will be on par with whatever is produced by Shein. Not to denigrate the skills of the immigrants (and let's face it, it is either Hispanic women or Asians in these places) who will be hired, but manufacturing clothes in the US is largely for mass produced stuff. Oh, but not if none of them are here because they've all been deported to El Salvador, so not sure where Bernard is planning to find the workforce he needs. I'm sure this is just a temper tantrum because he was made to look like a fool after attending the inauguration. He needs to take a seat.

I completely agree. The whole alignment with Trump has been embarrassing and painful to watch from the start. I understand that lobbying is sometimes necessary, but there are more subtle and strategic ways to go about it. Do we see the CEOs—or even the major shareholders—of Chanel or Hermès showing up at an inauguration? Of course not. They’re savvy enough to stay silent and keep their distance. A company of that stature should appear strict neutral. And now, with that so-called 'friendship' proving to be meaningless, it feels like a major misstep.

And worst of all, by threatening to move production to the U.S. and trying to pressure the EU, he’s essentially following the Trump playbook to a T. I honestly expected more from B.A.; I thought he was smarter than that. With someone like Elon Musk, we’ve already seen how that kind of alignment can backfire...

 

[GRCF]

he’s essentially following the Trump playbook to a T

For sure. He is used to getting his way in France, hopefully EU leaders are not as easily influenced.

I think the alignment with DJT is genuine. Bernard is someone who wants to be adored, revered, etc. just because of his wealth. I think he sees himself in Elon and DJT., and genuinely likes them. I'm not at all surprised since he is always complaining that the French hate him because he is rich. He's smart, of course, but I think his vanity and arrogance get the best of him all the time.

 

[Lola701]

I think it was in Le Canard Enchaîné

LVMH : Bernard Arnault a fait salarier son cuisinier familial par Dior | Le Canard enchaîné

Licencié brutalement, l’ex-chef cuistot assigne le milliardaire aux prud’hommes. Il l'accuse de l’avoir fait travailler au noir à ses divers domiciles et pour……

www.lecanardenchaine.fr

I couldn’t subscribe because I don’t have a French card and for some reason you can pay for single issues with a foreign card but not a subscription.

Anyway, a friend had screenshots for the first round of sms but it looks like there were more.

View attachment 1373355 View attachment 1373356 View attachment 1373357 View attachment 1373358 View attachment 1373359 View attachment 1373360 View attachment 1373361 View attachment 1373362 View attachment 1373363 View attachment 1373364 View attachment 1373365 View attachment 1373366 View attachment 1373367 View attachment 1373368 View attachment 1373369

At least Alexandre is well raised….

I hope the cuisinier had a good paycheck in his settlement.