Bling is dead

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

er, to be dead don't you have to be 'alive' to start?

 

Antoine Arnault, the 34-year-old heir to Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, (LVMH) a luxury and fashion empire valued at close to £60 billion, said: "We are going to enter an era in which logo and ostentation is going to be less successful.

 

"It will be about real quality."

 

Mr Arnault is well placed to make this prediction. The group founded by his father, Bernard - France's wealthiest man, and according to Forbes magazine the fourth richest in the world - spans fifty of the world's best known high-end brands.

 

They include Christian Dior, Krug, Tag Heuer, Bulgari, Givenchy, and Glenmorangie as well as Louis Vuitton itself, of which Mr Arnault was head of communications for five years.

 

Despite worldwide financial turmoil, the sector is enjoying an "anti-crisis" he says: between June and September last year LVMH reported sales of £4.9 billion, an 18 per cent increase across the group.

 

Arnault said he believes that the global appetite for luxury goods is poised for a bling-busting shift.

 

"People are going to want more quality, and less ostentation," he said.

 

"Especially in a world in economic crisis: you don't want to be seen with evidently expensive products. Just something that is beautiful."

 

The most surprising aspect of the luxury industry's 14 per cent boom in the face of broader economic gloom is that it is driven by male consumers, who are now spending £155 billion a year on luxury clothes and accessories for themselves, according to a new study.

 

This bodes ill for Natalia Vodianova, the Russian supermodel with whom Arnault has been romantically linked.

 

"The only explanation is that people still want to please themselves," Mr Arnault said.

 

 

 

etc etc

 

what a blert