pre-fall 2025 collection<\/a> she just paraded in Kyoto, plus Nicolas Ghesqui\u00e8re and Pharrell Williams, artistic director of women\u2019s and men\u2019s collections at Louis Vuitton respectively, plus Victoire de Castellane, Dior\u2019s longtime designer of fine jewelry collections, touting \u201csensational\u201d sales of her most recent high jewelry offering shown in Florence.<\/p>\n\n\tEurope\u2019s luxury groups have been under pressure from investors and equity analysts to kickstart business with new creativity as the boom in business in the post-COVID-19 period has fizzled.<\/p>\n
\n\tChanel, Gucci, Maison Margiela, Lanvin, Bottega Veneta, Versace, Tom Ford, Dries Van Noten, Mugler, Bally, Jil Sander and Jean Paul Gaultier are among houses that named new creative directors in the past year.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnderson transformed Loewe from a small, reputable Spanish leather house into a vibrant global luxury brand steeped in contemporary culture.<\/p>\n
\n\tHis daring designs \u2014 and intense focus on craftsmanship \u2014 helped catapult the scale of the Loewe business, with revenues multiplying by more than seven times over his tenure to approach 2 billion euros, market sources estimate.<\/p>\n
\n\tContacted by WWD, Dior declined further comment on what Anderson has up his sleeve.<\/p>\n
\n\tNews of Anderson\u2019s position confirms previous WWD reports that he had begun working on the Dior men\u2019s spring 2026 collection.<\/p>\n
\n\tChiuri has helmed the brand\u2019s womenswear collections since 2016. She is due to parade Dior\u2019s cruise 2026 collection on May 27 in Rome.<\/p>\n
\n\tThursday\u2019s shareholders\u2019 meeting was dedicated mostly to LVMH\u2019s 2024 results, though Arnault spoke frankly about how the first quarter of 2025 started off well, but took a turn for the worse in March as Trump\u2019s tariffs began roiling stock markets and spooking consumers worldwide.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat said, we remain optimistic, and we are continuing our investments,\u201d Arnault said, sounding relaxed and speaking off the cuff. \u201cWe are continuing to master manufacturing, which is still something essential, and we are sticking to our values.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe touted the importance of creativity, \u201cwhich is at the heart of everything we do,\u201d and the entrepreneurial spirit he encourages at LVMH.<\/p>\n
\n\tArnault also stressed that \u201cthe pursuit of the best quality, the highest quality, is at the heart of our success.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHis passion for products was evident: He appointed his seat at the podium desk with Louis Vuitton\u2019s Montgolfi\u00e8re A\u00e9ro that was developed with clock specialist L\u2019\u00c9p\u00e9e 1839, which the group acquired last year.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Louis](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLouis Vuitton Montgolfi\u00e8re A\u00e9ro clock.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Louis Vuitton<\/p>\n
\n\tAt one point, he instructed LVMH\u2019s new chief financial officer C\u00e9cile Cabanis to hold aloft the jewel-like timekeeping device, modeled after a hot air balloon and the size of a small table lamp. (The limited-edition item sold for 55,000 euros.)<\/p>\n
\n\tThe luxury titan also boasted about the quality of Vuitton\u2019s mechanical watches, the dynamism of Dior makeup and its Sauvage fragrance, still number one in the world, and lavish flagships for Vuitton and Tiffany in Milan, which opened earlier this month.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe then spoke of two \u201cphenomena\u201d that give him hope for the future of LVMH\u2019s business, despite the current geopolitical and economic turmoil.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe first is the rising standard of living and wealth creation occurring all over the world, which is expanding the number of people who can consume luxury goods.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis should normally \u2014 despite ups and downs depending on the economic circumstances \u2014 continue, so there is every reason to be convinced, as I am, that the extraordinary power of attraction of our brands will continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe second phenomenon, \u201cwhich is more unfavorable, is the one we are currently observing: inflation and its consequence, which is a rise in interest rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tArnault explained that this mostly impacts the \u201caspirational\u201d customer base, which serves to clarify LVMH\u2019s objective to continue prioritizing high-quality products over volume.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe larger the company, the more it needs to work with influential customers to continue to grow,\u201d he said. \u201cWe still prioritize the growth of our most elevated products, even if it means growing a little slower\u2026.Ultimately, what matters is having the greatest desirability for the long term.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll have a little less growth,\u201d he continued. \u201cOK, that doesn\u2019t bother me at all, as long as we make the best products.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAsked about looming tariffs, Arnault stressed that it was essential to \u201crecreate a climate of trust, trade and reciprocal relations\u201d with the U.S., which accounted for 25 percent of LVMH\u2019s 2024 sales. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll succeed, but I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe allowed that if Europe\u2019s luxury sector ends up with high customs duties, LVMH may be \u201cforced to increase our American production, inevitably to avoid customs and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLouis Vuitton counts three U.S. sites for leather goods production, which provide roughly one-third of local needs and can ramp up capacity, as reported. Jeweler Tiffany & Co. also manages to supply most of its American stores with its U.S. production.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIf Europe doesn\u2019t negotiate intelligently, they will have this consequence in many companies,\u201d he said. \u201cI have already heard several companies are considering increasing their capacities in the United States, but we mustn\u2019t say that it\u2019s the companies\u2019 fault. It will be Brussels\u2019 fault if that were to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShareholders were proposed a dividend of 13 euros per share, on par with 2023.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u2014 With contributions from Lily Templeton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated 11:46 a.m. ET April 17 PARIS \u2014 Bernard Arnault surprised the fashion world \u2014 and apparently everybody…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16766,77,17631,17632,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-29433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dior","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jonathan-anderson","11":"tag-kim-jones","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114357338403797467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}