Page 60 - Forbes - USA (November 2019)

→ “Bernard Arnault inspires me,” says Sheron Barber.

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

F O R B E S . C O M N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9

ALLETIER