Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. I slept eight hours last night—despite
this week’s stock market freefall and the looming threat of a recession! Lipstick effect or not, our dear Rachel “Rachel@puck.news” Strugatz is here with an examination of Louis Vuitton’s big bet on beauty, and what it says about the state of the category. Up top, more Paris. You’ll find my report from Saint Laurent, the final fashion show of the month; a preview of tomorrow’s
big day of announcements; and some news on Bernard Arnault’s plans to rule LVMH for at least nine more years.
Tomorrow is Inner Circle Day, which means you’ll need to upgrade in order to read something you can’t get anywhere else about the big forthcoming
appointments. If you’re having technical difficulties, feel free to respond to this email or message Fritz@puck.news for assistance.
Mentioned in this issue: Louis Vuitton, Pat McGrath, Nicolas Ghesquière, La Beauté, Hermès, Dior, Jonathan Anderson, Sephora, LVMH, Dario Vitale, Versace, Gucci,
Bernard Arnault, Frédéric Arnault, Yves Saint Laurent, Donatella Versace, 10 more years, and a lot more…
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Three Things You Should Know…
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- Thirsty
Thursday: There are several planned announcements in the works for tomorrow: Gucci (which is going to be “radical,” I hear, and set off a string of additional announcements); Versace (where Dario Vitale is expected to succeed Donatella Versace); and maybe even Dior (it’s Jonathan Anderson, as I’ve told you for months). My understanding was that the Dior announcement would happen within the next six weeks, not this
week, but perhaps things have accelerated. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this gets adjusted before tomorrow morning, but no matter: The last thing these houses want is their potentially stock-moving news to be drowned out by someone else’s appointment.
These designer changes follow an extensive round of executive musical chairs within the walls of LVMH. Earlier this evening, young scion Frédéric Arnault was named the new C.E.O. of Loro Piana
(I told you that last week); current Loro Piana C.E.O. Damien Bertrand was named deputy C.E.O. of Louis Vuitton (which you also knew); and Fendi C.E.O. Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou—whose future was also in
question—was named deputy C.E.O. at Dior, under eldest child Delphine Arnault. More on all this in tomorrow’s issue.
Anyway, once it all gets sorted, there will be a new world order in fashion. By that time, Versace may also have a new owner. I’m told that the Prada Group has an exclusive bidding window on the Capri Group–owned brand, and that Prada will have more time to close the deal after two weeks of diligence. In other words, if it happens, it could still be a
long time before we know anything. (Reps for Prada and Versace had no comment.) Get ready for September.
- Thrive (?) until 85: LVMH chairman and C.E.O. Bernard Arnault, who turned 76 last week, has made it perfectly clear that he’d like to work for at least 10 more years, if not 15. On April 17, he’s going to make sure that’s possible via governance, if not biology, when LVMH will propose to shareholders raising the age limit of the
chairman of the board and the C.E.O. of the company to 85. Journalist Dana Thomas unearthed the proposal in the French government’s “Bulletin of Mandatory Legal Announcements,” published on March
10.
Again, this is not surprising, and shareholders will approve the change. Where does this leave the five Arnault kids, three of whom are under 35 and all of whom are enmeshed in a very public succession cold war? With his appointment at Loro Piana, 29-year-old Frédéric Arnault is viewed as the favorite child, and this postponement would give him space to move into the job while potentially gaining ground on some of his oldest siblings. But the tactic also underscores the
reality that none of these kids are ever going to be the equal of their dad—no one can replace BA, and by the time someone needs to, LVMH may look vastly different. (Indeed, this added decade gives the paterfamilias plenty of latitude to remake the company or bylaws as he sees fit, perhaps similar to the Murdoch situation.) And while I don’t believe there are currently plans to break the company up—other than spinning off the wine and spirits division—there is
a convincing argument that they should. If that were to happen, different children may end up leading different parts of the business.
- The End of Fashion… Week: How real should the runway be? I discussed Anthony Vaccarello’s latest Saint Laurent concept with three stylists after the show, and they were mixed on its message: Editorial? Sure. Of this time? That’s less clear. What’s obvious is that Vaccarello is asking women to surrender
to unreality. Over the years, his work has waded deeper and deeper into the house’s archives, creating a cinematic fantasy of what a modern wardrobe could look like. (Saint Laurent Productions is just the beginning; I suspect he’ll direct a movie one day.)
On Tuesday night, in a room filled with the scent of Black Opium, he conjured the spirit of Yves Saint Laurent with a dramatic, strong-shouldered Paris Fashion Week finale, a gradation of saturated colors
that was as mesmerizing on Instagram as it was in person. There is a reason so many designers these days are so closely referencing the past, and it’s not only because the internet has rendered the past and present interchangeable. There’s also a desire to feel the way we used to feel about fashion: thrilled. As much as I loved all the black suiting and corporate cosplay going on this season, it was nice to imagine a world where women still dress up, and Vaccarello achieved
that.
For those who prefer reality over fantasy (a tough sell at the moment), I see the leather bombers and ball-gown skirts becoming something of a thing. I wonder what Donatella Versace thought. Sitting next to Kering deputy C.E.O. Francesca Bellettini at the show, she was dressed in head-to-toe Saint Laurent. (She also attended Vaccarello’s Legion of Honor ceremony this evening.) At one point, Vaccarello was viewed as a potential successor for Versace. But that
actually was a long time ago.
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Last week’s announcement that Pat McGrath would be launching Louis Vuitton’s first foray
into makeup thrilled beauty junkies, reassured investors, and gave every indication that they’d follow the Vuitton fragrance model of exclusivity and scarcity. After all, it is Louis Vuitton.
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The biggest (and best) beauty news to come out of Paris Fashion Week was that British
makeup artist Pat McGrath is getting the kind of gig her extraordinary talent deserves: cosmetics creative director of Louis Vuitton’s yet-to-be-released La Beauté Louis Vuitton. Finally, I thought, this is what she should have been doing all along. McGrath, founder of the beleaguered makeup brand Pat McGrath Labs, is better suited to conceptualizing and formulating makeup for other brands, especially ones that can offer time, resources, and a huge
runway presence.
As the rollout made clear, McGrath will be working alongside her longtime friend and collaborator, Louis Vuitton’s women’s artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière. That pairing suggests that La Beauté isn’t going for mass appeal… at least at first. Instead, expect super luxe ingredients and extravagant packaging (I heard lipsticks will retail for around $80 to $90), with limited
distribution. High-fashion beauty, in other words—a nice little add-on when someone buys a handbag, or a consolation prize, perhaps, for people who spent half an hour in line just to ogle a $3,000 bag.
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Despite an enthusiastic reception to the news, Louis Vuitton’s entrée into makeup came
as a surprise to most. “They always said they would never do it,” said a person with knowledge of LVMH’s beauty business. “Within the company, it was discussed that makeup always ends up in the gray market and is brand dilutive––and Louis Vuitton would never take that risk.” According to insiders, the brand wasn’t expected to dabble in beauty categories outside of fragrance, and then only as long as it was “very contained” in its own stores to avoid brand dilution, naturally.
Meanwhile, it’s increasingly hard to stand out in makeup—a reality that LVMH knows as well as anyone, given its ownership of Sephora. But Louis Vuitton’s desire to delve deeper into beauty is understandable: It’s a lucrative business with great margins and has proven recession-resilient. So I’m eager to assess the initial lineup, and especially whether the packaging lives up to the brand.
(McGrath told Vogue that there will be “dedicated small leather goods” designed to house La Beauté products, similar to the $745 logo traveling cases for fragrance.) The initial lineup, which goes on sale in the fall, includes 55 shades of lipstick, lip balms, and eye shadow palettes, which were always the best thing about McGrath’s own makeup line.
There are grounds for optimism. I’ve heard that Louis Vuitton’s nearly decade-old perfume line, whose 100-ml
bottles retail for $330 and are sold only in the brand’s 400 or so stores worldwide, is about a $500 million business. Frankly, it could be bigger. I’ve always felt that Louis Vuitton was leaving money on the table given the limited distribution, even as the brand has amassed some nice incremental sales in the category. Of course, with leather goods as its core business, beauty has never been much more than a brand-enhancing side hustle for LV. The person with knowledge of LVMH’s
business put it more bluntly: “Makeup was always below them.”
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It’s been suggested that McGrath can make Louis Vuitton a major player in designer
makeup—a space that McGrath, in fact, helped create. She was integral in the creation of Armani’s Luminous Silk foundation (2000) and Dior’s Diorshow mascara (2002), two of the most iconic makeup products ever created, both rare examples of products that still power their respective businesses. But as an industry executive recently noted, despite a surplus of launches, there have been no real hits outside of the existing players and their hero products.
They have a point. Armani Beauty, Dior, and Chanel comprise a reliable trio of mainstays in designer makeup. Beyond them, it’s pretty grim: Valentino’s foray into makeup was a giant flop; L’Oréal couldn’t make Prada work (“It’s too intellectual entirely,” said a high-level beauty source); and YSL Beauty’s relevancy continues to wane. Givenchy is still trying to dig itself out of the Prisme Libre debacle, and Gucci feels lost
and extremely disjointed, with the makeup still tied to the creative vision of Alessandro Michele, who left the brand in 2022. Don’t even get me started on Celine, one of the biggest failures to launch since Valentino and Prada went into makeup. (It’s complicated, and explained in part by Hedi Slimane’s departure.)
But does Louis Vuitton actually aspire to compete
with the Big Three? Initially, I thought La Beauté Louis Vuitton could be a great vehicle to expand LVMH’s designer beauty presence beyond Dior, since an initial launch within Louis Vuitton’s retail network could eventually give way to a larger Sephora rollout. (You don’t have to look much further than the 2017 launch of Fenty, another LVMH-owned brand, to know how powerful Sephora’s backing can be.) Unfortunately, insiders say Sephora is too down-market for Louis Vuitton’s makeup,
which, like its fragrance, may only ever be sold in its own stores. “The positioning was runway––which is not commercial,” another insider noted. Still, I’m holding out for some kind of retail partnership, even if it’s with Neiman Marcus and Saks.
If I had to guess, La Beauté Louis Vuitton’s introduction will resemble that of Hermès’s beauty. From the first lipsticks that launched in 2020, and even the nail polish,
Hermès’s measured entrée into color cosmetics has been carefully executed. (Five of the colorblocked lipsticks have been neatly displayed in my bathroom for years.) As with Louis Vuitton, Hermès is so strong in leather goods that beauty, a tiny piece of their overall business, will never be the priority. The benefit for Hermès, as it may be for La Beauté Louis Vuitton, is that makeup will never be driven by sales goals, or a need to scale at breakneck speed to make numbers or achieve
global rankings. It just needs to be good.
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Whither Pat McGrath
Labs?
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New gig notwithstanding, McGrath will remain firmly enmeshed at her namesake, Pat McGrath Labs—a brand
that has suffered layoffs, rumors of missed deadlines and vendor payments, diminishing shelf space at Sephora, and, most recently, the messy departure of C.E.O. Rabih Hamdan and his unhinged farewell email. (A source close to the
company insisted Hamdan was “never the C.E.O,” despite Hamdan’s LinkedIn saying otherwise.)
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McGrath has been painted as a creative genius who surrounded herself
with poor leadership, but insiders are still unsure whether she’s as oblivious to her surroundings as she claims. Others wonder whether Pat McGrath Labs and La Beauté Louis Vuitton can coexist, and, even more morbidly, whether Pat McGrath Labs will survive the year. “I can’t imagine she’ll have the bandwidth to do both, and I don’t think she has the right infrastructure to parallel path,” the executive at a top beauty brand told me. “I think Pat McGrath Labs will be a wrap.” Some suggested that
LVMH could acquire McGrath’s floundering brand, which seems improbable; I can’t imagine LVMH doing so unless they bought the I.P. or arranged some fire-sale type deal, buying Pat McGrath Labs in order to gain access to McGrath herself.
Either way, McGrath’s affinity for lavish shoots and traveling with an entourage fits in perfectly at a place like LVMH, a large corporate environment used to
managing creatives, where a multimillion-dollar campaign is a rounding error. In her new home, McGrath will probably have unfettered access to capital for her creative endeavors. But most importantly, she’ll have time: Louis Vuitton made it clear that it will approach makeup slowly, and it can afford to do so since there’s no pressure from investors to scale. Personally, I can’t wait to see what she does.
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By the way, here’s a great piece from Brennan Kilbane about the
goings-on at Pat McGrath Labs, which makes the situation sound worse than we imagined. [BoF]
Interesting that Imaginary Ventures, Natalie Massenet and Nick Brown’s fund, is an investor in Mikayla Nogueira’s new
beauty brand, Point of View. [WWD]
Sporty & Rich will now sell “wet mouth spray.” [WSJ]
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That’s it from Rachel and me. Gotta rest up, big day tomorrow!
Until then,
Lauren
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