Chocolate factory, ephemeral restaurants, cafes and even, perhaps, a hotel: the world’s leading luxury brand Louis Vuitton, which aims to be “more than a fashion brand, a brand of culture”, is accelerating its diversification to better “extend its territory”.
Louis Vuitton, “it’s much more than a fashion brand, it’s a brand of culture with a global audience”, had launched at the beginning of the year the CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault during the general assembly of the group.
In 2021, Louis Vuitton accounted for 27% of the world’s number one luxury sales, whose turnover then reached 64.2 billion euros.
“The idea is that the brand can sell everything, given its power and its influence”, noted a note from the HSBC bank following these remarks made by Bernard Arnault. She cited Louis Vuitton’s presence “in jewelry, sneakers, perfumes and even chocolate.”
This year, Louis Vuitton has, among other things, installed an ephemeral tea room in its Lille boutique with Meert waffles in its effigy, created an ephemeral restaurant in Saint-Tropez with the starred chef Mory Sacko, another in Seoul with Alain Passard , also a starred chef, or presented a collection of furniture and objects in Shanghai.
And on December 12, Louis Vuitton will open for one year, in its headquarters in the heart of Paris, a space called LV Dream bringing together an exhibition of the brand’s collaborations with artists, a café, a chocolate factory and a boutique.
“Luxury leaves the era of the artisanal niche, we enter an era of cultural influence. The more we go on the cultural side, the more we reinforce the symbolic dimension of the brand. We forget that we are in commerce and so we can sell for more,” Julie El Ghouzzi, of the consulting agency Cultz, told AFP.
If diversification is not new – there are Ralph Lauren or Gucci cafes, Armani hotels… – the “difference comes from the fact that Louis Vuitton does it in full control, it’s not a license”, adds she.
“Luxury is a hydra”
In an interview with the specialized site of the luxury world Women’s Wear Daily (WWD), the CEO of the brand Michael Burke even evokes the possibility, following the LV Dream project, of transforming the head office into a Louis Vuitton hotel.
Located opposite the Samaritaine and the Cheval Blanc hotel, also owned by LVMH, the place “has all the characteristics of an ideal place to stay”, he said, hoping for an opening “within five years “, according to WWD. “That’s what our customers want, a 7-day-a-week, 24-hour relationship,” says Burke.
For Serge Carreira, lecturer at Sciences Po Paris in the Fashion and Luxury Masters, “each new brick consolidates the rest: the hotel enriches the story of the Louis Vuitton brand on the art of travel”.
With a hotel, “Louis Vuitton has the ambition to play a role in cities in the 21st century”, adds Eric Briones, author of “Luxe et digital” (ed. Dunod).
Michael Burke does not hide that his “dream is to revive the original commercial city center of Paris”. “It’s Bernard’s (Arnault) version from the start, we’re halfway there. It will take another 10, 15 years to get to what we want,” he told WWD.
For Eric Briones, “luxury has never been so powerful”: “the financial markets are accustomed to double-digit growth” and therefore a luxury brand is “in a constant search for new business, to extend its territory. It is the extension of the domain of luxury”.
“They are no longer luxury houses, they are luxury platforms. Luxury knows how to move to where the money is, where the growth is”, according to him. “Luxury is a hydra, you cut off a head, it grows two heads”.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / awp / afp
