By
AFP
Published
June 10, 2026
From his childhood in northern France to his presence at Donald Trump‘s second inauguration, Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, the world’s leading luxury group, is the subject of a critical biography published on Wednesday, the first in France in more than 20 years.
Bernard Arnault – AFP
In “Bernard Arnault, son univers impitoyable,” published by La Tribu, fashion industry specialist Audrey Millet looks back on the childhood of this scion of a well-to-do Roubaix family- his parents ran a construction company- and traces his rise to become one of the richest men in the world, presiding over a family fortune that Bloomberg estimated at $162 billion in June 2026.
The author recalls his time at the prestigious French École Polytechnique, where he excelled in probability theory but, if his grades are anything to go by, less so in general knowledge. The book devotes a few lines to his compulsory internship at the École d’application du génie in Angers, where the military concluded that he was “unfit to be entrusted with a position of responsibility.”
“What the French army then identified as failures of command, the management thinking of the 1990s would relabel as agility, transformational leadership and entrepreneurial spirit. The world would change its frame of reference,” notes Audrey Millet.
Then came the acquisitions: first Boussac in 1984, a textile empire that owned the jewel Christian Dior; then LVMH, at the time comprising Louis Vuitton and Moët-Hennessy, after manoeuvres that led to an investigation by the Commission des Opérations de Bourse.
Dozens of other houses were subsequently acquired to build the current empire of 75 companies: Givenchy, Kenzo, Guerlain, Sephora, Pommery, as well as Les Echos and Paris Match. Some takeover attempts failed, such as Gucci, ultimately snapped up in 1999 by François Pinault‘s PPR group, or Hermès, a case in which LVMH was sanctioned by the Autorité des marchés financiers.
The book also suggests the support the businessman received from the French state, notably for the Boussac takeover: “It was the French state that lawfully financed the operation”, writes the author. In early June, Le Canard enchaîné reported pressure on La Tribu from people close to the billionaire; La Tribu is part of the Les Nouveaux Editeurs group- in which François-Henri Pinault, chairman of the luxury group Kering, has a stake via his holding company, Artémis.
“I can tell you that the pressure was very strong,” the book’s publisher, Julia Pavlowitch, told AFP, without elaborating. “This book is a free publication from an independent publisher, in no way influenced by its shareholding… It’s a traditional edition, which is becoming increasingly rare,” continued the publisher.
Contacted by AFP, LVMH declined to comment.
Paris (France), 10 June 2026 (AFP)
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