HR Controller

Published: 29.07.2026 20:01 Updated: 29.07.2026 20:01 Bernard Arnault, the 77-year-old French billionaire who years ago became the richest man in Europe, gave an example of a moment in his career when he says he was simply lucky to increase his wealth, according to Business Insider. With a fortune estimated by Bloomberg at $157 billion, the founder and CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH is not only the richest man in Europe, but also the only European billionaire in the top 10 ranking of the wealthiest people in the world. Arnault is the 9th richest man on the planet. Before him, the rankings are entirely occupied by founders or CEOs of Silicon Valley tech companies such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Sergey Brin, or Jensen Huang - founder and CEO of Nvidia. It is well known, among other things, that Arnault very rarely gives long interviews. "Why would I give information?" he joked when journalist Guillaume Pley, host of the French podcast "LEGEND", brought up how little is actually known about him. The billionaire says he invested in technology during the rise of the internet. In a rare conversation, lasting over an hour and a half and published by Pley on his YouTube channel, the man behind the brands Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Tiffany & Co. spoke openly about a wide range of topics, including his relationship with Silicon Valley. "I heard you also invest in other areas. Can you tell me what you invest in, personally?" the French journalist asked him. "Yes, I have been personally investing in technology for a while," Arnault replied, explaining that he started betting on this sector during the popularization of the internet in the second half of the 1990s. "I made several investments. Do you remember that period when internet company stocks entered a real speculative bubble?" he asked, referring to the famous "dot-com" bubble formed towards the end of the 1990s, before spectacularly bursting at the turn of the new century. "Some businesses exploded, others survived. Well, one of the investments I had not foreseen was in an American fund. I had invested in an investment fund on the West Coast of the United States. My partner, who handles all these investments for me, told me: 'Well, we can probably consider the money lost,' because this fund, like many other American funds from that period, must have lost everything," Bernard Arnault recounted. The pure luck moment in Bernard Arnault's career. "And one day we receive a message saying: 'We are sending you the shares we have left, because we have no more money. The fund is dissolved.' And we receive a fairly large package of Google shares, which I think at that time were valued at 2 or 3 euros per share," the French billionaire revealed. "At that time, I didn't even know what Google was. At first it wasn't very well known. After that, however, the value of the shares increased significantly," he continued. Arnault said he no longer remembers the exact price at which he sold the Google shares he did not expect to receive, but that he made a "nice profit." After this account, Pley asked him if there is sometimes also a dose of luck in business. "In this case, it was indeed simply luck. We invested alongside very reputable people. They probably took too many risks, and their main fund had to be liquidated. So we received the share we were entitled to from the remaining assets after liquidation. That's how the story ended," he answered. Arnault said it was "a very good deal," in which however "our merit was practically non-existent." "Once in a while, one like this comes along," he concluded.

PAUSE highlights: how the fashion industry sanded down culture. Is there something bigger going on? Men's Autumn/Winter 2026 Fashion Week recently wrapped up; however, with it came a feeling that has become all too familiar. There is a particular kind of scroll that now happens every fashion week. You're on Instagram, perusing through stories, brand takeover reels, and runway recaps, and amongst all the content you find that this is all just fine. The excitement, allure, and envy you used to feel when watching this content no longer exist. Fashion Week is still fashion week, the casting is considered, the craftsmanship is impeccable, and the set design is incredible. Yet still, none of this makes you feel anything in particular. It's safe to say fashion has never been better at producing, however, it has rarely been worse at provoking a reaction from its congregation. This isn't a criticism of the designers or brands doing the work, if anything, they are the ones who have been caught up in what's been lost whilst also trying to compete for attention in an AI and social media-fueled industry that just doesn't stop. But it does illustrate something that has been building for the better part of the decade, where does the fashion industry source its culture, and what has it had to give up for it, and what is the true cost of trying to keep up with a feed that never slows down? [PHOTO CREDIT: (various)] Rewind to 2017. Then, menswear artistic director at Louis Vuitton, Kim Jones, tapped skateboard brand Supreme for what would be one of the most commercially significant collaborations in the history of the fashion industry. Slapping the LV monogram on Supreme's signature red-and-white box logo, the heritage French luxury house and a New York skate brand shared the runway, proving that streetwear was commercially viable. The collaboration generated an estimated $500 million in revenue - not to mention the cultural prestige that Louis Vuitton received from streetwear tastemakers and influencers who were a hot commodity at the time. The fashion industry took note, and within months of Jones vacating his post at Louis Vuitton, LVMH had already figured out the playbook that would shape the industry for years to come. Building on the foundation set by the Louis Vuitton x Supreme collaboration, Bernard Arnault, Louis Vuitton's Chief Executive, appointed Virgil Abloh as the luxury house's first Black artistic director of menswear. Famous for his work with Kanye West and Off-White, Virgil staged his debut collection on a rainbow runway to a standing ovation at the Palais-Royal gardens in Paris. Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and a host of other celebrities were in the front row. Instead of borrowing the culture via another collaboration, by hiring Virgil, LVMH also hired the culture he represented. Virgil's appointment set a new precedent in the fashion industry. Streetwear had been knocking at the door of institutional luxury fashion for many years, and this was confirmation that it had finally arrived. Seeing the cultural success of the Louis Vuitton x Supreme collaboration, in 2020, VF Corporation set off the acquisition arms race. The behemoth behind brands like Vans, Timberland, and The North Face shelled out $ 2.1 billion to purchase Supreme. Four years later, VF Corp would sell Supreme to EssilorLuxottica, the eyewear group best known for owning Ray-Ban. Sold at $1.5 billion, a loss of $600 million, the valuation of Supreme was head-turning but what happened post-acquisition tells the real story - an independent brand that had previously been the darling of culture and was once valued at $2.5 billion became worth significantly less once it was under institutional ownership. Besides the loss of value at Supreme, the playbook was now set. A corporation identifies a brand with genuine cultural heat, the kind of heat that cannot be manufactured, that comes organically from a specific community, and has an unwillingness to be all things to all people. The corporation acquires it and deploys resources such as increased distribution, a bigger retail footprint, and production scale. And in doing so, it gradually sands down everything that gave the brand its value in the first place. The edginess, the exclusive and limited releases, and the sense that this brand was made by a particular type of person for a particular type of person - the if you know you know vibe. Once that is gone, all that remains is a logo, a heritage story, and some very good stitching. No case study better illustrates this than Off-White. Created by Virgil Abloh, who figured out how to translate streetwear codes into luxury fashion without losing either audience, he had fast become one of the most culturally significant fashion figures in a generation. His imprint, Off-White, worked because there was specific and visible cultural commentary behind every design decision. Whether it was unfinished hems, zip ties or the quotation marks, Abloh captured a generation with his designs, and Off-White quickly became the cultural symbol of luxury streetwear. In 2021, three years into Abloh's tenure at Louis Vuitton, LVMH acquired a minority stake in Off-White. At this point, Virgil was at his creative peak, and Off-White reaped the rewards. His institutional success with Louis Vuitton would bleed into Off-White, quickly making it a must-have brand and one of the premier shows at PFW. Virgil was the connective tissue between Off-White, the culture, and everything that gave it meaning. When he died in November 2021, it felt like Off-White collapsed immediately. By 2023, the brand that was once an industry powerhouse, dominating global charts and officially ranking as the #1 hottest brand in the world in 2018, was described as being in a 'critical' state by its incoming CEO, Cristiano Fagnani. Abloh's move to LV had been good for Louis Vuitton, but the acquisition of Off-White had pulled him away from the community he had worked so hard to build. Following his death, LVMH sold its stake in Off-White to Bluestar Alliance, owner of Bebe, a retail chain of women's apparel, and Hurley, an online store for surf clothing. So what does this have to do with Fashion Week? Well, this is where this all started. The Supreme deal, Louis Vuitton's Virgil Abloh appointment, and the Off-White acquisition all point to the same thing. In 2017, Kim Jones proved that borrowing the credibility and cultural prestige of streetwear was worth over $500 million. In response, LVMH realised that borrowing the culture was too short-term, they would rather employ it. In response to LVMH's response, VF Corp decided to escalate this, and instead of employing the culture, they would rather own it. The problem with this playbook is that it only works until everyone starts to run the same play. The cultural power of streetwear that was displayed via LV's collaboration with Supreme or Virgil Abloh taking his talents to Louis Vuitton came from the outside position that these brands held. When luxury absorbed streetwear, it didn't just acquire the brands, it siphoned the last major cultural force that was operating outside the walls of an exclusive and sometimes highbrow industry. And then, in attempting to replicate what made those acquisitions valuable, every house ran the same play. The vocabulary moved from the margin to the mainstream. The oversized silhouettes, the logomania, the collaborations started to feel engineered to feel accidental, rather than a rage against the machine as they'd been in the past. And once something occupies the mainstream, it stops being interesting in the way that fashion outside of the mainstream is interesting. Fashion Week has never been more optimised for content. But at the same time, it has never felt more stale. Its edges have been rounded off and this is why the runway looks the way it looks and why fashion week feels the way it does. Not because the talent left or the craft declined. But because the formula that once felt disruptive became, through cultural acquisitions, just that, a formula. And after a while, this formula will no longer surprise you. It can be argued that this wasn't an accident but a deliberate choice made by fashion executives, who spent a decade sanding down the edges of fashion by acquiring cultural influence and are only now realising what they traded away to get it. The flair, the magic and the edginess that once drove what felt like the whole of London to Paris for PFW (even if they weren't attending shows) seems to have gone. It's not really clear where luxury fashion goes next, but what is clear is that fashion used to make people argue, debate and criticise, now it just makes people scroll past.

Champagne and Cognac lift Moët Hennessy as LVMH returns to growth. 29 July 2026 By James Bayley LVMH's wines and spirits division returned to growth in the first half of 2026, with Champagne and Cognac showing signs of recovery after two difficult years and helping to drive an improved performance across the luxury group. LVMH's Wines & Spirits division delivered one of the strongest performances across the luxury conglomerate during the first half of 2026, as Champagne and Cognac rebounded despite continued geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Organic revenue in the division rose 5% during the first six months of the year, with profit from recurring operations climbing 11% to €582 million. The improvement came as the wider LVMH group reported revenue of €38.6 billion, down 3% on a reported basis but up 2% organically, with second-quarter growth accelerating to 3%. Group operating profit slipped 4% to €8.7 billion, although net profit remained broadly unchanged at €5.7 billion. Recovery for Champagne and Cognac. LVMH said its Champagne business showed "encouraging signs", particularly for prestige cuvées, after two years in which the category has faced softer global demand. Moët & Chandon also completed its second season as the Official Champagne of Formula 1, continuing the brand's renewed marketing push. Cognac also showed signs of improvement. The group said Hennessy maintained the positive momentum seen during Chinese New Year, helping offset continued uncertainty in other markets. LVMH also expanded the Hennessy brand in the United States with the launch of its V.S. ready-to-serve cocktail range. Elsewhere within the portfolio, Provence rosé wines continued to post growth, with LVMH saying brand desirability, innovation and disciplined cost control remained priorities for the division. Confidence returns. Commenting on the results, chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said: "LVMH demonstrated its solidity and effective strategy. Our Maisons, which remained focused on ensuring the utmost quality in our products, and several of which are pursuing their creative renewal, continued to inspire dreams and enhance their desirability." Arnault added that "the recovery in champagne and cognac" had contributed to stronger second-quarter momentum and said the group was entering the second half of the year with "renewed confidence". Long-awaited turnaround. The improved performance marks a notable change for Moët Hennessy after a prolonged slowdown that has fuelled questions over the future of the division. As previously reported by the drinks business, speculation earlier this year suggested Diageo could sell its 34% stake in Moët Hennessy as part of a wider portfolio reshuffle. The FTSE 100 drinks group swiftly dismissed the reports, insisting it had "no intention" of selling either Guinness or its minority holding in the LVMH-owned wines and spirits business.