Arnault Fly Zone

Amid LVMH’s significant challenges (tariffs, China, the post-Covid correction, bored consumers, a depressed stock), Bernard Arnault is quickly adjusting course for his luxury conglomerate, and shuffling around prized executives. Will these be enough to combat the luxury recession, or are they the first strategic moves in a larger vision?

Shareholders’ decision to extend the age limit for the C.E.O. to 85, earlier this year, is the latest sign that Arnault grasps the challenges, and likely realizes that only he can solve them before handing the company to the next generation. Photo: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Lauren Sherman

July 14, 2025

Of all the headaches that LVMH has suffered in the past week—a report in the Financial Times about accusations of sexual harassment at Moët Hennessy, a customer database breach at Louis Vuitton in the U.K., Trump’s intention to enforce a 30 percent tariff on European imports to the U.S., and a Milanese court’s investigation into Loro Piana’s labor practices in Italy—its lowest moment may have been closer to home. The French business magazine Challenges, in which LVMH owns a minority position, downgraded Bernard Arnault and his family to the second-wealthiest in France, having been leapfrogged by the Dumas heirs, who run Hermès. (The Wertheimers, who own Chanel, are still in third place.)