NOVEMBER 30, 20 19Arnault didn’t respond to Ghesquière’s dig.
In late October, Arnault, Burke and Dior CEO
Pietro Beccari were set to fly to Seoul to visit
stores, including a new Frank Gehry-designed
Vuitton outpost. It’s the sixth Vuitton store to
include an art gallery that will show selections
from the extensive collection of the LVMH-fund-
ed Fondation Louis Vuitton, which also rotates
through the Fondation’s $135 million Paris mu-
seum (also designed by Gehry).
Even with the conglomerate’s massive foot-
print around the world—4,590 shops in 68 coun-
tries—store openings and closings often depend
as much on Arnault’s gut and a neighborhood’s
ambience as on more traditional metrics like
sales per square foot. In China, one of LVMH’s
most important markets, he limits the number
of Louis Vuitton shops to control the pace of ex-
pansion.
Last year, Louis Vuitton shuttered a store in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, because adjacent shops,
restaurants and parking weren’t ritzy enough. Ar-
nault visited a property on the Champs-Élysées
multiple times before he approved a new Dior
store near the Arc de Triomphe that opened in
July, despite data showing the previous tenant
had sluggish sales. “He pushes you to really be
sure,” Dior chief Beccari says. “He wants to chal-
lenge you, that’s his tactic.”S
howing up rivals is another tac-
tic. In July, as apparel brands
were competing to see who
could be the most eco-con-
scious, he announced a partner-
ship with the British fashion designer Stella Mc-
Cartney (daughter of Paul), who has long tout-
ed her sustainability efforts (she says she even re-
fuses to use glue in her sneaker line because it’s
made from boiled animal parts). Arnault invit-ed McCartney, who in 2018 ended a 17-year part-
nership with the Pinault family’s Kering luxury
group (owner of Gucci), to become his “special
advisor.” She accepted, despite LVMH’s decision
to continue to make products with leather and
fur (and glue). Arnault also declined to join the
“Fashion Pact,” led by Kering and signed by 32
apparel makers, including Chanel, Hermès, fast-
fashion giant H&M and even McCartney, who all
pledged to lower carbon emissions.
Arnault then made his own series of eco-ges-
tures during Fashion Week, when the media
converged on Paris to cover the shows. At Tues-
day’s Dior show, where models paraded across a
stage decorated with 170 trees in dirt-filled bur-
lap bags, the press was told that the theme was
sustainability and that the electricity at the event
was produced with genera-
tors powered by canola oil.
The next evening, LVMH
hosted 50 journalists for a
two-and-a-half-hour event
in an auditorium at com-
pany headquarters. Arnault
and ten LVMH brand chiefs
took turns on a brightly lit
stage reciting their com-
mitments to environmental
stewardship, their presen-
tations interspersed with
slickly produced videos of
models strutting down cat-
walks and cashmere goats
frolicking on the Mongolian
steppes.
Mid-event, Arnault was
asked to share his thoughts on young climate ac-
tivists like 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. “I’m a nat-
ural optimist,” he said, “unlike Greta, who has a
big problem, and that’s projecting an outrageous
amount of pessimism in her messages without any
real solutions.”
Not surprising for a corporate titan, he prefers
not to dwell on problems. “He doesn’t like to hear
the word ‘no,’” says Anna Wintour, the longtime
Vo g u e editor. “It’s not part of his vocabulary.” Not
from rivals, acquisition targets or even environ-
mental champions.
McCartney is one of many big names he’s
reeled in. In 2017, LVMH launched a cosmetics
line, Fenty Beauty, with the pop star Rihanna,
distributing the products through its retail beau-
ty chain Sephora’s 2,600 stores. Capitalizing on
Fenty’s broad-audience offerings—its foundation
comes in 40 skin shades—and on its founder’s 77
million Instagram followers, the division will hit
$550 million in sales this year, Arnault says. He’s
betting that Fenty Fashion, the apparel collection LANDONNORDEMAN/TRUNKARCHIVE(TOP);^ ERIKMADIGAN^HECK/TRUNKARCHIVEFORBES.COM64
PROFILE—BERNARDARNAULTLVMH’s Fresh Faces
Arnault regularly
brings in new design-
ers. Pop singer Ri-
hanna (top) headlined
Fenty’s pop-up event
in Manhattan this past
summer while Stella
McCartney, Arnault’s
new sustainability ad-
visor, drapes herself in
her own eco-friendly
design.