PARIS — If luxury titan Bernard Arnault allowed himself a self-satisfied smirk at last month’s French Open finale, now we know why. As the buzz surrounding partnerships between sports and fashion reaches a fever pitch, his company LVMH has sweeping projects in the works to cement a leading position in the space.
At a press conference backdropped by the Eiffel Tower Monday night, luxury’s biggest group announced a historic sponsorship deal with the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The conglomerate will be a “premium” partner throughout the events, with a handful of its biggest and most French houses also set to roll out brand-specific initiatives: Louis Vuitton, Dior and Berluti will enjoy sponsorship opportunities, including producing uniforms for athletes, while drinks division Möet Hennessy will sponsor and supply champagne for celebrations. High jewellery label Chaumet will be charged with producing the competition’s medals.
The announcement came just weeks after the group’s biggest brand, Louis Vuitton, announced tennis champion Carlos Alcaraz as its latest brand ambassador — days before the 20-year-old Spaniard went on to win Wimbledon. As the sporting world reveals itself as an increasingly rich terrain for top-end brands, LVMH’s efforts in the space have ramped up group-wide. In the past year, suit- and shoemaker Berluti partnered with Formula One team Alpine while Dior Homme became the elegance partner of football club Paris Saint-Germain. Monday, the group also announced it had also signed an ambassadorship with French swimmer Léon Marchand, who had broken the world record for the 400-metre medley the previous day.
“Just as the Olympic ideal is to push the limits [of athletic achievement], Paris’ beauty inspires us to always go further in the pursuit of beauty,” chairman Arnault, the world’s wealthiest person, said.
LVMH’s big Olympics bet (reportedly paying as much as 150 million euros, though it declined to comment on the figure) could end up representing the biggest coup yet for Antoine Arnault, Arnault’s son who was named the group’s head of communications and image in 2018.
In recent years, the group has sought to shift its public perception from a secretive, elitist entity puppeteering an armada of over 75 luxury brands, gradually managing to balance the narrative with increased awareness of its role as a leading employer, taxpayer and booster of “Brand France.” The younger Arnault pledged to “mobilise [the group’s] artisans and ateliers, and put the full force of LVMH behind making the games a success.”
For its brands, sports represent a key front in so-called “cultural” strategies of meeting consumers wherever their interests lie. In recent years, social-media savvy teams and athletes have learned to use tunnel walks, travel days and other content moments surrounding their sports into opportunities for brand placement beyond the traditional ad spot or step-and-repeat, fuelling increased interest from sponsors.
“You can really see sports becoming more culturally relevant. Sports events are bringing together people from music and cinema more and more. And you see athletes getting interested in fashion, and wearing couture brands in a way they didn’t used to. So sports and fashion start to have more and more in common,” Antoine Arnault explained.
While brands as big as Louis Vuitton (which crossed the threshold of €20 billion, or $22.1 billion, in annual revenue last year) don’t often limit themselves to communicating on a single national identity, recent months have seen the brand reinforcing its Frenchness with a travel campaign shot at Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and Pharrell’s debut menswear spectacle set on the Pont Neuf crossing the Seine.
Paris 2024 games have been plagued by construction delays and logistical setbacks, as well as social unrest that put France’s ability to provide a unified, peaceful forum for the competition in question.
Still, organisers aim to produce one of the most telegenic, memorable spectacles in Olympics history: Paris’ first time hosting the games in 100 years is planned to include equestrian events in the gardens of Versailles, fencing under the towering glass ceilings of the Grand Palais (currently under renovation), and cycling around the Buttes Montmartre and open water swimming in the Seine.
A year out from the opening ceremony — which will parade along the banks of the Seine before a finale onlooking the Eiffel Tower — apprehension is starting to give way to excitement for many fatalistic residents of the French capital. That’s certainly the case at LVMH.
Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority interest in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholders’ documentation guaranteeing BoF’s complete editorial independence.
