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spirits. Since 2008, LVMH has purchased 20, bringing the ritual,” says his son Frédéric, 25, who works at LVMH’s top
total to 79 brands. In 2011 it paid nearly $5 billion for Italian watch brand, TAG Heuer.
jeweler Bulgari. Two years later it bought the fine-wool Arnault relays details from his visits to the chiefs of his top
purveyor Loro Piana for a reported $2.6 billion. As recently brands. He recently alerted Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke
as April, LVMH paid $3.2 billion for London-based hotel that the new “it” bag, the $2,480 Onthego tote, was not in
group Belmond, whose holdings include the Cipriani hotel stock at the Place Vendôme shop.
in Venice, the Orient Express train line and three ultra-luxe At least once a month, Arnault travels in his Bombardier
safari lodges in Botswana. “Bernard Arnault is a predator, not jet to visit some corner of his empire. In October, he visited
a creator,” says a banker who was close to the Boussac deal. the small town of Keene, Texas, where he and Donald
Arnault has not succeeded at every conquest. In 2001 Trump cut the ribbon on the first of two new Louis Vuitton
he lost what the media called the “handbag war” for
control of fabled Italian fashion house Gucci, to his
French luxury rival, François Pinault. Over the next de-
cade, LVMH used a stealth tactic common among hedge
funds—cash-settled equity swaps—
to secretly acquire 17% of Hermès, the
182-year-old maker of fine silk scarves LVMH’s fresh faces;
and the iconic Birkin bag. Hermès Arnault regularly
brings in new
fought Arnault off in a protracted battle designers. Pop singer
that ended in 2017 with LVMH relin- Rihanna (right)
headlined Fenty’s
quishing most of its Hermès shares. pop-up event in
Manhattan this past
summer while Stella
p close, Arnault’s polished ap- McCartney, Arnault’s
pearance is like a suit of armor. new sustainability
advisor, drapes
UOn an overcast morning in late
herself in her own
September, he is attired in a selection of eco-friendly design.
LVMH brands, including a pin-striped
Celine suit, a navy Loro Piana tie, black workshops slated to create 1,000
leather Berluti slip-ons and a white cuff- jobs over the next five years. (The
linked Dior shirt with his initials em- brand already has two workshops in
broidered just below his heart. Slim and California.) “I am not here to judge
185cm, he stays fit playing four hours his types of policies. I have no political
of tennis a week, sometimes with friend role,” said Arnault to reporters. Still,
Roger Federer. “I try not to be fat, as you the event sparked controversy within
see, and I do a lot of sports,” he says. his own ranks. Vuitton’s womenswear
Those games are among his only artistic director, Nicolas Ghesquière,
breaks from a schedule that starts at wrote on Instagram: “I am a fashion
6:30 a.m. in his 17th-century mansion designer refusing this association
on Paris’ Left Bank. He begins each #trumpisajoke #homophobia.” Arnault
morning listening to classical music, didn’t respond to Ghesquière’s dig.
scanning industry news and texting In late October, Arnault, Burke and
family members and brand chiefs. Dior CEO Pietro Beccari flew to Seoul
“What I have in mind every morning is to visit stores, including a new Frank
that the desirability of a brand should Gehry-designed Vuitton outpost. It’s
be as strong in ten years,” he says. “It’s really the key to our the sixth Vuitton store to include an art gallery that will show
success.” By 8 a.m. he’s in his office, where he stays as late as selections from the extensive collection of the LVMH-funded LANDON NORDEMAN/TRUNK ARCHIVE (TOP); ERIK MADIGAN HECK/TRUNK ARCHIVE
9 p.m. Occasionally he’ll take a 20-to-30-minute pause to play Fondation Louis Vuitton, which also rotates through the Fon-
the Yamaha grand piano down the hall. dation’s $135 million Paris museum (also designed by Gehry).
“He works 24 hours,” says Delphine Arnault, 44, Arnault’s Even with the conglomerate’s massive footprint around
oldest child, from his first marriage, and the executive vice the world—4,590 shops in 68 countries—store openings and
president of Louis Vuitton. “When he sleeps, he’s dreaming of closings often depend as much on Arnault’s gut and a neigh-
new ideas.” borhood’s ambience as on traditional metrics like sales per
Every Saturday, he prowls his stores, rearranging bag square foot. In China, one of LVMH’s most important mar-
displays and making suggestions to clerks. He visits as many kets, he limits the number of Louis Vuitton shops to control
as 25, including the competition, in a single morning. “It’s a the pace of expansion.
48 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020
