Page 68 - Forbes - USA (November 2019)

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-
64 fashion giant H&M and even McCartney, who all
pledged to lower carbon emissions.
Arnault then made his own series of eco-ges-
L T tures during Fashion Week, when the media
U
A converged on Paris to cover the shows. At Tues-
N day’s Dior show, where models paraded across a
R
A stage decorated with 170 trees in dirt-filled bur-

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

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