The catwalks of power

Colombian-born French designer Haider Ackermann’s highly anticipated debut as creative director at Tom Ford received much praise and acclaim early last month, following the presentation of the brand’s autumn Paris Fashion Week show. On the sidelines, Ackermann told fashion reporters, “I hope to seduce you,” having presented what GQ.com described as a “hot-blooded” offering. Another Magazine called the debut “extraordinary”, while a writer for CR Fashion Book referred to it as “seductively chic, and daringly brilliant”.

The appointment of Ackermann was received with excitement in the fashion world, and there is just as much enthusiasm about the new generation of designers taking the reins at various luxury brands. There’s Sarah Burton at Givenchy; Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta; Alessandro Michele at Valentino; and Matthieu Blazy, whose upcoming debut at Chanel later this year is one of the 2025’s most anticipated. At Gucci, a question mark remains following Sabato de Sarno’s sudden exit, leaving a vacancy at one of luxury’s biggest brands. With Gucci’s sales in free fall, the question of Sabato’s replacement could either fuel or undercut the growing sentiment that traditional fashion designers — talented artisans, with both the fashion-education background and experience — are losing favour in luxury. 

“Has Fashion Gone Full Hype?” read a 2023 article in Vogue Business following the announcement that Grammy Award-winning artist Pharrell Williams would replace the late, revered Virgil Abloh as men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton. Many names had been bandied about, including those of British-Jamaican menswear designer Martine Rose and British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner but, in the end, LVMH appointed Williams.

The move was welcomed by many of his peers, fellow celebrities, and fans, but for others in the fashion world it was a marker of an industry increasingly defined by viral moments rather than clothes. As Vogue put it, many felt that “creative directors are [now] chosen based on follower count or celebrity status rather than design expertise. And in a socio-economic climate where many designers are struggling to stay afloat, some editors, buyers, and consultants feel it’s the major houses’ job to lift up and celebrate design talent rather than give one of the top jobs in the industry to an already established multi-hyphenate.”

However, a conglomerate such as LVMH’s allegiances are not to the industry but to its shareholders. As such, it has to balance its decisions against shifting consumer preferences in the context of the ever-growing convergence of fashion and popular culture. When appointing Williams, LVMH said he was the perfect candidate because “the way in which he breaks boundaries across the various worlds he explores, aligns with Louis Vuitton’s status as a cultural maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit, and entrepreneurship”.

But while the likes of Williams and even Rihanna, whose status as a fashion icon is undeniable, are often the faces of luxury in the modern era, straddling celebrity and influence in boardrooms, power still largely remains with the majority shareholders of industry giants such as LVMH, Richemont, and Kering, despite the challenging economic headwinds that have led to falling fortunes for many of their brands. This is especially true in the current global climate, where discourse increasingly veers towards a “new world order”. 

There’s an unpredictable outlook everywhere as US President Donald Trump’s threats of tariff hikes loom over some of his country’s closest trading partners. These include, but aren’t limited to, Mexico, China, and Canada. And, of course, South Africa recently got in his crosshairs over the preposterous allegations of a genocide of white South Africans, but that’s a story for another time.

Following Trump’s inauguration in January, the word “broligarch” surfaced as many observed with suspicion the presence of Silicon Valley billionaires in the front row at both his inauguration and the church service afterwards. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and, of course, Elon Musk of Tesla and X were all in attendance. Far less spoken about was the presence of luxury’s wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, and his family. Make no mistake, the sudden outpouring of support for Trump from the world’s richest industrialists is purely about profit. Many are literally changing how they do business (see Tik Tok and Meta, among others) as they play catch-up with the Trump administration’s often unpredictable policies.

Per Reuters: ​​“LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault attended with his wife Helene Mercier and two of his children, Delphine Arnault and Alexandre Arnault. All of Arnault’s five children hold prominent positions in his luxury-goods group, the world’s largest. Delphine Arnault heads the fashion label Dior, while Alexandre, who has played a key role rebranding its American jewellery label Tiffany & Co., is returning to France from the United States to help run the group’s wines & spirits division. The Arnault family is France's wealthiest, with a holding in LVMH worth around [US]$200-billion.”

Alexandre Arnault recently took charge of the company’s US$6-billion wine and spirits business, which is responsible for brands such as Moët et Chandon and Hennessy. The division has seen its revenues falling sharply for two years straight. This, coupled with Trump’s tariffs, presents a challenge for the younger Arnault. However, his father views the tariffs, and the US, with apparent optimism. 

Arnault and Trump have known each other for decades and, as the cost of doing business in Europe continues to escalate owing to taxes, among others, Arnault has even publicly stated his intention to look at moving production to the US. This has the potential to upend the entire industry, in the same way Trump’s tariffs may well upend the entire global economy. 

Besides his stated positivity about the US, Arnault is part of a business that is unlikely to see a lot of growth in the near term, but LVMH did beat expectations with a reported organic revenue growth of 1% in the last quarter of 2024 (buoyed by its perfumes and cosmetics business). It remains one of France’s largest private sector employers, with 119 production facilities in the country. Globally, it employs over 215 000 people. 

That is a lot of power to distribute, made even more potent by the fact that newer, much smaller brands are battling to survive the economic headwinds. Many are selling stakes to bigger rivals, including LVMH, whose LVMH Ventures arm has already bought shares in successful brands such as Gabriela Hearst and popular Scandinavian brands such as Our Legacy and Db. LVMH also owns a large stake in Rihanna’s Fenty, by the way.

At a time when the global economy is ever more unpredictable and the geopolitical environment remains volatile, whatever moves the broligarchs make will help to define the new world order. In the personal luxury-goods business, the face of that new order is Bernard Arnault and his family. And that is the reality, not the celebrity hype.

From the April edition of Wanted, 2025