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Loose Threads
After sitting out the Met Gala and using the day to draw attention to garment workers in an i-D magazine feature, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s public schedule included a meeting with Anna Wintour. Mamdani’s spokesperson said, “The mayor and Ms. Wintour had a good meeting where they talked about their shared love for New York City and ways they can work together to support New York City’s fashion industry.”
Meanwhile, Anna appeared in a searchable database of New Yorkers who could be affected by the city’s new pied-à-terre tax.
On the topic of great, no-frizz hair: I’ve been using 14th Night’s Hair Elixir for the last year or so and it’s magic for taming frizz and letting my waves… wave. You only need a tiny amount — like barely a drop — so one bottle lasts a long time.
The FTC is investigating Shein ahead of its planned Hong Kong IPO, though it’s not clear over what. Shein disclosed in documents relating to the IPO: “The outcome of the investigation, whether in settlement or otherwise, may require us to make significant monetary payments that could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.”
Athleta is having a mega-sale through August 3. Check out these great high-rise leggings with pockets (which come in various lengths and heights); these gray fleece sweatpants marked down to $30; and this tank, $23 in bright pink.
Ahead, today’s big story…
Bernard Arnault ‘Has No Friends’
Le Monde just published a six-part series on Bernard Arnault, one of the world’s richest men and the head of LVMH. You know it’s good because he took to right-wing Boomer social network of choice, X, to complain about it in a sassy response spanning three pages. The LVMH press account even put sassy little quotations around “the investigation” by Le Monde.
Elon Musk retweeted it in solidarity with the idea of inordinately wealthy and powerful figures going directly to the people instead of through the media. The Wall Street Journal reported that “people close to” Arnault said he was “furious” about the series. He didn’t deny any of the facts in the reporting, but seemed rather, well, butt-hurt that the Chanel-owning Wertheimer family got what he viewed as more favorable coverage.
The series provides a searing look at one man’s lifestyle that’s so rich it’s silly, along with his relentless competitiveness, desire to hold onto power until well into his eighties, geopolitical influence, disdain for taxes, and apparent ease sidling up to authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, if he perceives their nations as growth opportunities for LVMH. Succession writers couldn’t script his story better.
Arnault and interior designer Peter Marino. Le Monde wrote, “This conventional man with such a stiff demeanor likes to surround himself with eccentrics, much as kings have always needed their artists and their court jesters.” (Photo: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Here are some of my favorite sentences from across the six articles:
In winter, when Monsieur switches to a turtleneck, everyone follows suit…
Monsieur has an elevator all to himself.
[H]e belongs to no clubs… Arnault “has no friends,” said [wife Hélène] Mercier.
He hates physical contact.
His eldest son also encouraged him to invest in sports that are more popular than expensive regattas or Formula 1 races.
Asceticism runs in the family, and their slender figures show that they allow themselves no excess, no indulgence.
Meanwhile, [daughter Delphine Arnault’s partner Xavier] Niel has no qualms about showing his mother-in-law [Hélène]'s incendiary WhatsApp messages to nearly everyone he meets.
He has just discovered a new sugar-free cocoa ice cream that he is crazy about…
Other details: his children call him “our father,” his grandchildren call him “Daddy.” He watches CNews (France’s version of Fox News) in his sauna every morning. He once asked a radio station he owns, Radio Classique, to only play 30 composers he likes. He goes to his 54-hectare private island in the Bahamas at the end of each year. He keeps pianos on his “yachts” so he can play there. He buys lots of art, including the painting by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec that hangs in a “small lounge” adjoining his office, which he said he likes, “Because I bought it at a very reasonable price!”
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Popular paid stories that were never beholden to Bernard Arnault:
Why was that Dior dress $140,000? Experts explain.
Do you have Chanelmania yet? Nine people who do explain how they afford it.
Eight more fashion predictions to replace the ones that already manifested.
The series also portrays Arnault as a man who sees cultural institutions as marketing canvases for his brands, hence his investment in the Louvre, where 10 Louis Vuitton fashion shows have taken place since 2020. Other LVMH brands, like Dior and Kenzo, have donated to the museum, enabling them to host dinners there, “sometimes in front of the Mona Lisa.”
Arnault owns a portfolio of media outlets, and exacts his influence on their editorial output. He had Radio Classique stop running a morning “Political Interview” segment because he did not like the “nonsense” he heard from left-wing guests. (French media regulations required the station to air both right-wing and left-wing perspectives.)
He cozied up to President Trump, whom he’s known since he started developing real estate in the eighties in Palm Beach (he came to the US to avoid socialism in France), in an effort to avoid tariffs on LVMH goods. He and his son Alexandre personally delivered a set of Rimowa luggage, inscribed for both him and Melania, to Trump Tower in 2017, and promised to open a Louis Vuitton factory in Texas. Bypassing his own government, he managed to negotiate a tariff exemption for his champagnes. He did not let up during Trump’s reelection campaign, renting the Louis Vuitton space in midtown Manhattan from the Trump Organization and calling him personally after the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt.
He also hosted a “grand reception” for Vladimir Putin in 2003 at his prestigious Château Cheval Blanc winery in Bordeaux and boasted that, thanks to Putin’s endorsement, “we sold all our stock in Russia!”
Though sales in Russia have been impacted by sanctions stemming from the war in Ukraine, Arnault can still do business in the important market of China. Here, Le Monde writes, he “has shown little concern for human rights violations in dictatorial regimes. He is welcomed there like a head of state, with official cars, flashing lights and military parades.” He managed to stage a well-publicized Dior exhibition in Shanghai last year.
The letter he posted to X suggests he expected the Le Monde series to be a puff piece about the craftsmanship of the artisans employed by LVMH (ignoring, of course, recent sweatshop allegations lower down in the supply chain).
But why respond at all, even if in purported jest? All it did was make people (raises hand) want to go read the stories. As we see time and again in the US with our own ever-looming billionaires, money can buy a lot of things — rockets, couture, boats with foam parties on them, the ability to behave in ways normal people can’t — but it can’t buy you the ultimate luxury: the ability not to give a fuck.
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Deck the Halls With Lady Dior Bags: It’s Earnings Season!
Now that we know where your money spent on LVMH stuff goes, let’s check in on how they’re doing. According to their latest earnings report, the group is up 1 percent year over year, reversing the last quarter’s 2 percent decline. This is a big deal because, particularly alongside other strong reports, maybe it shows that the luxury downturn is ending.
Some outlets framed the turnaround as a Dior success story (remember that creative director Jonathan Anderson is locked in a competition with Matthieu Blazy’s turnaround at Chanel, which got its own internet “mania” this year). The Wall Street Journal took a more measured approach, though, saying Anderson’s designs have had an “excellent start.”
And Do Our Friends at Kering Have Good News, Too?
Apparently so, especially considering how hard its portfolio of brands had been hit by the luxury slowdown.
Revenue for the most recent quarter was up 1 percent from a year earlier in reported terms, in line with analyst expectations. Gucci’s sales were down 3 percent from the previous year in reported terms, though sales in directly operated stores were up 7 percent from the previous quarter.
So things could be worse for Demna, who’s been tasked with a creative turnaround at Gucci, which thus far has involved parading Tom Brady through Times Square in tight black leather and a general vibe of looksmaxxing and tightmaxxing.
Amy Odell is the New York Times bestselling author of Gwyneth: The Biography; Anna: The Biography; and the essay collection Tales from the Back Row: An Outsider’s View from Inside the Fashion Industry. Write her at amy (at) amyodell (dot) com. Submit a tip or story request anonymously here.
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