Why Melania Trump’s hat is serious business
Plus: earnings season, the Trump bump, and why luxury needs to be louder
Melania Trump’s hat is serious business
I’ve been doing some freelance writing at The Daily Beast, and yesterday I wrote about Melania Trump’s sharply brimmed hat. Despite the memes and jokes from TV characters like Jimmy Fallon, what the first lady wears is serious business. Here’s an extract from my story.
Sitting in the second row of the inauguration stage behind former President Bill Clinton, was Bernard Arnault, the French billionaire CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.
Arnault may be concerned about recent choices by her French stylist Hervé Pierre, who chose not to dress her in LVMH-owned Dior for the big day.
Pierre, who has helped style Melania since 2017, now prefers to source outfits for the first lady from smaller, boutique stores, reports Glitz.Paris, rather than from major fashion labels owned by the Arnaults.
Melania is a loyal client of Pierre’s, even after he was reported to picked out that famous Zara jacket—emblazoned “I really don’t care”—for her to wear on a trip to a children’s refugee camp.
The Arnault family’s business interests in the U.S. include luxury handbags, fashion and alcohol, all of which is threatened by potential 25 percent tariffs which Trump has been threatening to impose on both enemies and allies.
To Arnault, what the first lady wears is serious business indeed.
(Read the full story at The Daily Beast)
China and handbags are out, America and bling are in
China's luxury market declined by 18% to 20% in 2024, marking the end of a period of "exponential growth." Flat sales are expected there in 2025, say Bain analysts. (Reuters)
The US is looking like an increasingly bright spot for the luxury market, thanks to soaring stock and crypto markets, which make the rich feel richer and more likely to splash out on luxuries. (A reminder that it’s only been four days since the launch of the $TRUMP “meme coin”, which initially soared to a market cap of nearly $20 billion, and then sank 25 percent.)
Luxury firms seem to be better positioned to take advantage of luxury spending because they’ve been expanding their presence outside of traditional locations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
Store openings in Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas, as well as Dallas and (god forbid) malls across the US suggests luxury’s “America first” moment could continue, the FT reports. (Financial Times)
Sales grew more in the US than any other region in Richemont’s blowout earnings report, up 22 percent there year-on-year in 2024, sending its stock up nearly 24 percent over the last month. Results for Italy’s Brunello Cucinelli also showed demand is holding up at the ultra-wealthy end of its sales spectrum.
There’s more evidence of all this in Goldman Sachs’ basket of luxury stocks, which so far has outpaced the broader market by 12 percent. (Bloomberg News)