LOUIS^ VUITTON^MALLETIERbalustrades lead to a private atelier on the fourth
floor where six seamstresses create bespoke dress-
es for celebrities like Lady Gaga and Emma Stone.
“I was very involved in the design,” Arnault says.
He obsessively tracks his top brands, especial-
ly Louis Vuitton, the conglomerate’s cash ma-
chine, which accounted for nearly a quarter of
LVMH’s 2018 revenue of $54 billion and up to
47% of profits, according to analysts. (LVMH
shares financials for its top five divisions but not
for its individual brands.) Vuitton’s selection of
bags, apparel and accessories, which the com-
pany never wholesales or discounts, is an ever-
changing mixture of classic and contemporary,
like an $8,600 limited-edition twist on its Capu-
cines purse in turquoise leather with an appliqué
pattern designed by Tschabalala Self, a 29-year-
old artist from Harlem. American Virgil Abloh,
39, Vuitton’s new menswear designer, created a stir
early this year when he debuted a collection with
glow-in-the-dark bags that use fiber optics to illu-
minate the LV logo in the colors of the rainbow.
“Why are brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior
so successful?” Arnault asks. “They have these
two aspects, which may be contradictory: They
are timeless, [and] they are at the utmost level of→
FORBES.COM NOVEMBER 30, 20 1956
PROFILE—BERNARDARNAULTThe 38-year-old has traveled from Los Angeles
to the palatial Louis Vuitton store on Paris’ Place
Vendôme during the height of fall Fashion Week
to pay tribute to his idol, the head of luxury co-
lossus LVMH. Barber is a spectacular sight. He
has dyed black dollar signs in his close-cropped
fuchsia and yellow hair, a green grill covering his
teeth and multiple Louis Vuitton luggage locks
dangling from the stainless-steel chain encir-
cling his neck. “I spent a couple hundred thou-
sand last year on LV,” he says. He earns a hand-
some living customizing the looks of music acts
like Migos and Post Malone. In his latest video,
“Saint-Tropez,” Post Malone wears a chest plate
constructed by Barber that is a blend of black
leather and a Vuitton bag. Of Arnault, Barber
declares: “He has single-handedly defined mod-
ern luxury.”
“It’s a most exceptional Louis Vuitton maison,”
Arnault says of the Place Vendôme store, in Eng-
lish with a distinct French accent. “You can see the
entire universe of the brand.” Opened two years
ago, the space feels like a cross between a muse-
um and a private club. An array of Vuitton’s wares
are displayed inside gleaming vitrines and on art-
fully placed shelves. Marble staircases with glass“Bernard Arnault inspires me,” says Sheron Barber.
Vuitton’s Versailles
The Louis Vuitton
store on Paris’ Place
Vendôme pays
homage to the
brand’s founder, who
opened his first shop
nearby in 1854.ALLETIER