Fashion · In depth

Who Owns Fashion? The Groups Behind the Great Houses

In depth: fashion·Paris

LVMH, Kering and the independents: the groups behind fashion’s greatest houses.

By the ULTIMATE Paris Editorial Team

Chanel signs along the rue Cambon in Paris, in black and white — Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © ashton · CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A model on the runway at a haute couture show in Paris, July 2006 — Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Gavin Rajah · CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A Chanel window on the rue Cambon in Paris, two figures in Chanel tweed and lace on a day bed — Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Chris Waits · CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A bottle of Chanel No. 5 parfum — Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Lily · CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Photo Credit

Image courtesy of © Chanel

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Four cities, four designers told how the fashion capitals were made. This companion series of four looks at the forces shaping fashion now: who owns the great houses, from Paris; the business of Fashion Week, from New York; the next generation, from London; and heritage against modern luxury, from Milan.

A business of empires

Walk the avenue Montaigne and the names above the doors read like a roll call of independent couturiers. Behind many of them, though, stands a group. Modern luxury fashion is, to a striking degree, a business of empires, and the largest of them is run from this very street.

LVMH

LVMH was created in 1987 through the merger of Moët Hennessy and Louis Vuitton, and its headquarters stand on the avenue Montaigne itself. The group describes itself as home to more than 75 maisons, and fashion is only one part of the empire.

Its fashion and leather goods houses alone make a remarkable list: Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture, Celine, Fendi, Givenchy, Loewe, Loro Piana, Berluti, Kenzo, Pucci, Moynat and Rimowa among them. Each keeps its own designers, ateliers and identity; the group supplies scale, capital and reach.

Kering

Kering, the other great luxury group, gathers its fashion and leather goods houses under six names: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni. Its jewellers are Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo and Qeelin, alongside the porcelain of Ginori 1735 and Kering Eyewear.

The connection to our designers is direct: Alexander McQueen, the London house founded in 1992, joined Kering in 2001.

Modern luxury fashion is, to a striking degree, a business of empires.

Beyond the two giants

Milan has its own group in Prada, whose brands are Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s, Car Shoe and Versace, along with the historic Pasticceria Marchesi and Luna Rossa. The group describes itself in terms of innovation, transformation and independence, and its shares trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

And some of the most famous names belong to none of them. Chanel sits in neither LVMH nor Kering, and in New York Ralph Lauren, who founded his company in 1967, still leads it as Chairman and Chief Creative Officer.

Why ownership matters

For a house, a group can mean capital, global distribution and the resources to keep rare crafts alive; independence can mean the freedom to move slowly and answer to no one. Both models have produced great fashion, and the tension between them is one of the stories of modern luxury.

Our advice: walk the avenue Montaigne from the Champs-Élysées towards the Seine and read the façades with this map in mind; the street is the clearest picture anywhere of how modern luxury is organised.