The 2025 luxury agenda and the God-like power of private jets
And also, a quick peek inside LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault's in-tray
Hello Dark Luxury readers,
Happy New Year! And welcome to those of you who subscribed to us during the holidays: a real gift during the dark, never ending days of the Xmas and New Year perineum.
Before we start, we’d just like to say RIP to Rosita Missoni, co-founder (with her husband Ottavio), of Italian knitwear brand, Missoni. Famous for their mind-bendingly beautiful and hypnotic way with colour and pattern — a kind of wearable pop-art — the couple blazed a trail in Italian ready-to-wear during country’s prosperous post-war boom. If anyone embodied the spirit of La Dolce Vita, it was Missoni. A far cry from some of what passes for luxury now, as we shall shortly find out.
In this issue, for the amuse bouche we’ll be looking ahead at some of the stories and themes which we think will dominate the luxury news agenda in 2025. These include a sneak peek at Bernard Arnault’s in-tray (it’s a lot), sweatshop-like labour associated with Dior’s suppliers, LVMH’s hip hop problem and China (it’s always China).
Meanwhile, the main course looks at the peculiar power of owning a private jet, something that Tina Brown recently described in her Substack as “the ultimate corrupting force.”
Buckle up for another wild and unusual ride into the dark heart of the luxury goods business.
Alf and Conrad
THE 2025 LUXURY NEWS AGENDA
We’re not clever enough to make predictions so instead here is a round-up of the top stories that we think will dominate the luxury news agenda in the next few months.
China’s economy
China, which accounts for 15 percent of the global luxury market and around a fifth of LVMH’s sales, will be the number one headache for executives heading into 2025. “Consumer confidence in mainland China today is back in line with the all-time low reached during Covid,” said LVMH CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony during the company’s earnings call in November.
This week Chinese stocks had their worst opening day of trading in a new year since 2016. Luxury sales are very much tied up to wider economic signals in China, like the stock market and property prices. When people feel wealthier, they generally feel ok to spend more.
Luxury shares did stage a December rebound following numerous rounds of Chinese stimulus to rejuvenate the world’s second-biggest economy, which have put shares in makers of high-end goods on course for their best month since February. However, it remains to be seen whether the luxury market will bounce back with the “confident” projection of a 5 percent increase in GDP of the Chinese economy.
Cultural, political and social factors could mean that the Chinese have simply fallen out of love with luxury after what many have described as the end of the country’s “gilded age.” And how much will the “800lb Gorilla” that is China’s grey market continue to take over from direct sales at retail stores? We’ll have more on that soon.
Bernard Arnault’s in tray
Here’s a quick peek at the in-tray of the world’s fifth richest man. We’ll be dedicating a whole newsletter to this in the coming weeks.
Money! He lost more money (on paper, at least) than anyone else in 2024 - $55 billion, from the peak in March 2024 to the end of 2024.
Succession Arnault has five children. Delphine, and four sons, Antoine, Alexandre, Frédéric and Jean, and just like in Succession, Arnault has set them against each other in a survival of the fittest contest to be LVMH’s next CEO.
Trump and tariffs The threat (real or otherwise) of tariffs by Trump means that even the Arnaults have to kiss le ring. Paris Match (owned by Arnault) is already publishing favourable articles about Trump. Meanwhile, Arnault’s son, Alexandre, was at Trump’s Madison Square Gardens rally where a comedian made not-very-nice jokes about Puerto Ricans.
It’s a full court press and everybody has to do their bit. As always, just follow the money.
“We're seeing people scurrying because it's really going to be important to so many businesses to negotiate reductions or exclusions from tariffs, which happen all the time,” says Vogue Business’s Christina Binkley in a conversation with CNN’s Audie Cornish.
Meanwhile, Arnault also has to navigate Chinese tariffs on French brandy, a trade worth nearly $2 billion.
Lawsuits
The Chef
Back in Paris, Le Canard Enchaine reports on the Dior chef who is suing the Arnaults. Kristoff H alleges gruelling working conditions and hidden labour. He claims that he worked over 100 hours a week — with only one weekend off per month — for a decade. He also alleges that he served meals for the Arnault family illegally, without pay stubs or official documents.
The Spy
In November last year, Arnault testified in the trial of the former head of France’s domestic intelligence agency, denying that he knew of an alleged scheme to protect the luxury group. Bernard Squarcini is one of 10 men on trial who are charged with, among other charges, obtaining confidential information on behalf of LVMH. “I would like to point out that I am here as a witness, a simple witness, and that my indictment was never considered by the investigating magistrates,” said Arnault.
The fellow billionaire
Oh, and if that’s not enough, Arnault’s also suing Elon Musk for unauthorised use of his newspaper’s content on X.
Luxury’s hip hop problem
Hip hop and the luxury goods business have had a long and tempestuous relationship for 40 years. That relationship is about to be tested like never before with the ongoing trials of Diddy and Jay Z, who have been accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000. Jay Z vigorously denies the allegations, but the potential reputational risk to the rapper and his wife Beyoncé is not going unnoticed at LVMH.
Expect this to be a recurring news story throughout 2025 for the luxury goods business as we hear more about the trial. We’ll be doing a deep dive about the links between hip hop and luxury in the next few weeks.
Luxury goods made in sweatshop-like conditions
Sweatshop-like labour isn’t just confined to fast fashion. The Milan investigation into Dior supplier Dior Manufacturers found that the Chinese-owned supplier was selling bags to Dior for €53 each, which the brand then sold to consumers for €2,000. The investigations by the Milan prosecutors found sweatshop-like conditions at 16 workshops near the city that made products for Dior and Giorgio Armani, and the supplier was placed under court administration.
Reuters found that this was part of a pattern of a “broken audit system” where ineffective checks on social and environmental standards inside Italy’s luxury supply chain were pervasive. According to Reuters, an audit of Dior Manufacturers in July 2023 found "no non-conformities," and certified the work was carried out to a high standard and in accordance with contractual terms.
“Even though Dior did not directly abuse workers, the mechanism of labour exploitation "was culpably fuelled by Manufactures Dior srl which... did not carry out effective inspections or audits over the years to ascertain the actual working conditions and environment," Milan prosecutors said in the June court documents, according to Reuters.
"We used to say we only worked four hours a day, as per our (formal) part-time contract," said Pakistani-born Abbas, who works in the leather making hub of Prato. "But how could they think we were making 1,300 bags a day with 50 workers employed only four hours a day?", Abbas, who said he worked 14 hours a day, six days a week, added.
This kind of practice is by no means a new phenomenon.
The God-like power of private jets
Private jets take up a lot of space in the popular imagination. Scroll through your insta and every once in a while you’ll see your favourite rapper, actor or influencer hopping onto one. The presence of private jets on social media sends a subtle message – to me at least (maybe I’ve watched too much Succession) – that it’s a do-able thing. That one fine day you too will fly the world in a private jet.
They remain one of the world’s true luxuries, reserved for a tiny fraction of the population who can afford them. According to researchers at a Swedish university, private jet users are a group of just 256,000 people, 0.003 percent of the global adult population, each with an average wealth of $123m (£95m).
Ironically, travelling on a private jet is far from the most luxurious flying experience because they are typically configured in “a kind of confrontational Eighties business-class” style, and only the most expensive private aircraft are tall enough for the average mega-rich man to stand upright.
Private jets are luxurious because owning one is like owning your own airline.