Page 47 - Forbes - Asia (December 2019 - January 2020)
P. 47
FOREVER LVMH’s Bernard Arnault
has created the world’s
largest luxury empire and
a $100 billion fortune. Now
YOUNG he is ready to scale up.
BY SUSAN ADAMS
“ ernard Arnault inspires
me,” says Sheron Bar-
ber. The 38-year-old has
Btraveled from Los Ange-
les to the palatial Louis Vuitton store
on Paris’ Place Vendôme during the
height of fall Fashion Week to pay trib-
ute to his idol, the head of luxury co-
lossus LVMH. Barber is a spectacu-
lar sight. He has dyed black dollar signs
in his close-cropped fuchsia and yel-
low hair, a green grill covering his
teeth and multiple Louis Vuitton lug-
The Louis Vuitton
gage locks dangling from the stainless- store on Paris’ lion and up to 47% of profits, according to analysts. (LVMH
steel chain encircling his neck. “I spent Place Vendôme shares financials for its top five divisions but not for its in-
a couple hundred thousand last year on pays homage to the dividual brands.) Vuitton’s selection of bags, apparel and ac-
brand’s founder, who
LV,” he says. He earns a handsome liv- opened his first shop cessories, which the company never wholesales or discounts,
ing customizing the looks of music acts nearby in 1854. is an ever-changing mixture of classic and contemporary,
like Migos and Post Malone. In his lat- like an $8,600 limited-edition twist on its Capucines purse
est video, “Saint-Tropez,” Post Malone in turquoise leather with an appliqué pattern designed by
wears a chest plate constructed by Barber that is a blend of Tschabalala Self, a 29-year-old artist from Harlem. Ameri-
black leather and a Vuitton bag. Of Arnault, Barber declares: can Virgil Abloh, 39, Vuitton’s new menswear designer, cre-
“He has single-handedly defined modern luxury.” ated a stir early this year when he debuted a collection with
“It’s a most exceptional Louis Vuitton maison,” Arnault glow-in-the-dark bags that use fiber optics to illuminate the
LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER; JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES
says of the Place Vendôme store, speaking English with a dis- LV logo in the colors of the rainbow.
tinct French accent. “You can see the entire universe of the “Why are brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior so success-
brand.” Opened two years ago, the space feels like a cross be- ful?” Arnault asks. “They have these two aspects, which may
tween a museum and a private club. An array of Vuitton’s be contradictory: They are timeless, [and] they are at the ut-
wares are displayed inside gleaming vitrines and on artfully most level of modernity. . . . It’s like fire and water.”
placed shelves. Marble staircases with glass balustrades lead to That paradox has translated into record sales and profits at
a private atelier on the fourth floor where six seamstresses cre- LVMH, whose roster of more than 70 brands includes Fendi,
ate bespoke dresses for celebrities like Lady Gaga and Emma Bulgari, Dom Pérignon and Givenchy. That, in turn, has helped
Stone. “I was very involved in the design,” Arnault says. drive up LVMH’s stock price, which has nearly tripled in less
He obsessively tracks his top brands, especially Louis than four years. Arnault, who owns 47% of the company’s
Vuitton, the conglomerate’s cash machine, which account- shares with his family, is now worth almost $108 billion. He is
ed for nearly a quarter of LVMH’s 2018 revenue of $54 bil- the second-richest person, behind Jeff Bezos ($113 billion).
DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020 FORBES ASIA | 45
