When the 128-year-old ship Belem sailed into the southern French port of Marseille on a radiant May day two months before the opening of the Paris Games bearing the Olympic flame, LVMH was already on board.
The Belem docked amid fireworks, fanfare and a flyover by Rafale fighter jets as Olympic swimmer Florent Manaudou carefully unwrapped the Olympic torch from its custom-made Louis Vuitton trunk to begin the torch relay on French soil, sponsored by LVMH-owned beauty retailer Sephora.
The event kicked off the countdown to this summer’s Paris Olympics, and a marathon of activities by the world’s biggest luxury group, as it leaves its mark on the Games in its home city as one of the event’s biggest and most high-profile sponsors.
“The torch has arrived in a sumptuous Louis Vuitton trunk,” the French rapper Jul shouted to cheering crowds of locals and tourists. They gathered to party on the docks as the torch was carried off the ship under the watchful eyes of VIP guests including president Emmanuel Macron and Delphine Arnault, the chief executive of Dior and the eldest daughter of LVMH’s billionaire owner Bernard Arnault.
Thus began LVMH’s Olympics, less than a year after the €350bn luxury conglomerate announced it would come on board with a sponsorship deal worth €150mn, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
When the Paris Olympics open on July 26, the month-long spectacle will allow the group to use the spotlight on the city with which it has indelibly intertwined its image to showcase its brands ranging from Louis Vuitton, the world’s biggest luxury brand, to jeweller Chaumet and suiting specialist Berluti.
“Even though we announced our partnership less than a year ago, which is very short, we have not been idle,” said Antoine Arnault, Bernard Arnault’s eldest son, who is leading the Olympic partnership across the group. “Our partnership allowed us to make our contribution to all the major moments of celebration of these Games, which is the common theme.”
While he expects the Games to be neutral for the group’s bottom line, LVMH’s involvement should “enhance the image of the group and its houses,” Arnault added.
The group’s stamp will be evident in many major moments of the competition, beginning with the torch relay, which included stops at LVMH’s Cheval Blanc hotel in the Saint-Émilion wine region and the Louis Vuitton Foundation art museum west of Paris.
Berluti is making the uniforms for the opening ceremony for the French Olympic team, the design a sharp navy suit with either skirt or trouser options, the French national colours in ombre silk along the lapels. Its workshops are currently doing hundreds of fittings for the athletes who will wear them during the spectacle, which will be held on barges floating down the Seine through Paris on the 26th.
At VIP bars where the drinks will flow freely, millions of bottles of Moët & Chandon champagne and Hennessy cognac are being delivered to stock Olympic hospitality venues. Chaumet has designed the medals that will be awarded to the champions, each with a small piece of metal from the Eiffel Tower embedded in the centre, which will be stored and presented in custom Louis Vuitton trunks.
As athletes mount the podiums, volunteers dressed in Louis Vuitton-designed uniforms will bear the awards, presented on Louis Vuitton-made salvers featuring the house’s signature brown check. The group will also host events for VIPs and top clients at venues such as the Louis Vuitton Foundation and the Cheval Blanc hotel on the Pont Neuf, which has sweeping views overlooking the Seine, and an exclusive lounge for medal-winning athletes.
The Paris Olympics “will contribute to heightening the appeal of France around the world. It is only natural that LVMH and its maisons would be part of this exceptional international event,” LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault said as he announced the partnership last year, standing at a podium surrounded by French ministers and Olympic committee members with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
Reinforcing the link between LVMH and Paris during an event where the city will be the star makes sense. Paris has served as a sort of sobriquet for luxury labels for centuries, denoting quality and exclusivity, with many LVMH houses including Celine and Dior bearing the city’s name alongside that of its creator. The group also frequently uses the city as the canvas for events and runway shows, capitalising on iconic sites from the Louvre’s Pyramids to the Pont Neuf.
“It’s a win for the group: the price tag [for the sponsorship] is not much for a group of that size, but the exposure is extremely valuable. It will help say: LVMH is Paris, and Paris is LVMH,” said one person with knowledge of the arrangement. And for the organising committee, “it filled in the budget nicely”.
LVMH’s Olympic partnership also represents the apex of luxury’s push into sport. While football and basketball might once have been considered too low brow for luxury brand partnerships who stuck closer to moneyed sports like sailing, polo and tennis, that has shifted in recent decades as ambitious groups shed some of their exclusivity in pursuit of new clients in a wider, more aspirational base — to great success.
LVMH been at the forefront, inking brand ambassador deals and shooting campaigns with top athletes alongside supermodels and actors. A 2022 Louis Vuitton campaign shot by Annie Leibovitz featuring football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi hunched over a chess board surrounded by the brand’s signature luggage broke the record for the greatest number of likes on Instagram at the time. A reprise this year featuring Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal hiking in the Alps looks to once again capitalise on the star wattage of the two tennis virtuosos.
Its competitors are also getting in the game. Italian luxury house Prada has been a sponsor of China’s women’s football team since last year, designing chic androgynous suits for them, and Chinese table tennis player Ma Long is a brand ambassador. American designer Thom Browne, part of the Italian Zegna group, has dressed teams including the Cleveland Cavaliers and FC Barcelona. Sticking closer to luxury’s more exclusive origins, watchmaker Rolex is a fixture at major tennis tournaments from Wimbledon to Roland-Garros, while Hermès pays homage to its equestrian roots by backing a number of the sport’s top athletes and events.
In addition to dressing rising sports stars like 20-year-old French basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama in custom Louis Vuitton suits and a 2023 collaboration between LVMH-owned US jeweller Tiffany and the NBA, LVMH is also sponsoring a number of Olympic athletes. Seven are sponsored at the group level, including the French swimmer Léon Marchand and fencer Enzo Lefort, while individual brands have also inked deals such as Dior’s naming a group of female athletes including US soccer star Alex Morgan as brand ambassadors.
With weeks to go until the Paris Games start, LVMH remains unfazed by the fraught politics in France after President Emmanuel Macron’s shock snap elections earlier this month. “This partnership will not be affected in any way by the political climate in France,” said Antoine Arnault. “We are removed from that.”
As to whether future Olympic sponsorships are on the cards, the group is not ruling them out, though Arnault said the focus remained on getting through the current Games before thinking about future events in Los Angeles (2028) or the French Alps (2030). “Nothing is excluded,” he said, but “there is a more significant link between our houses and Paris”.
Additional reporting by Sarah White
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