"It is not an obligation, nor something inevitable, for a son to be my successor." Bernard Arnault, the fifth richest man in the world, turned 76 this week and has long surpassed retirement age. The king of the luxury brand empire LVMH, with an estimated fortune of over 175,000 million euros, has tried to avoid the succession war by creating a new holding company with control evenly distributed among his five children from his two marriages.
The third of them, Alexandre, 32 years old, seems to have taken the lead in recent months after his appointment in November as deputy director of the Moët Hennessy brand, the Premium wines and spirits division of LVMH, in recognition for having relaunched Tiffany & Co to make it one of the most profitable companies among the 76 that make up the group.
Regarding Tiffany & Co.'s plans to open the store in New York that was previously occupied by Nike, near the Trump Tower, Alexandre Arnault was precisely discussing this months ago with the then candidate Republican, whose loyalty to the brand goes way back (to the extent of naming his youngest daughter Tiffany, fourth in his peculiar line of succession).
Alexandre Arnault actually attended the controversial rally of Trump at Madison Square Garden (the same one where Puerto Rico was called "the island of garbage" and where he promised "the largest deportation program in the United States"). His name is on the list of privileged individuals who have had access to dinners organized at Mar-a-Lago, an opportunity also used to lend a hand to Elon Musk.
"He is a rising young man, son of one of the great businessmen and leaders of Europe, and the world," wrote Donald Trump himself about him on Truth Social. Their friendship actually goes way back, thanks to the mediation of "dad" Bernard: the three shook hands at the opening ceremony of a Louis Vuitton workshop in Johnson, Texas, during the first term of the Republican in 2019. Arnault's son is also a close friend of Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, for years.
Alexandre is therefore the rising star of the Arnault family despite lacking the experience of his older siblings Delphine (49) and Antoine (47), who share the throne of the maison Dior. The two eldest are from the patriarch Bernard's first marriage with Anne Dewavrin, from whom he divorced to marry the Canadian pianist, Hélène Mercier-Arnault, with whom he could indulge his passion for Chopin.
Alexandre was the firstborn of the second marriage, the middle child overall, followed by Fréderic (29) and Jean (26), an industrial engineer trained in London, leading the Louis Vuitton watch business. Since the age of 25, when he took on the role of CEO of the luxury luggage company Rimowa, the spotlight has mainly been on Alexandre, who also contributed with his digital background (graduated in Telecommunications from ParisTech and a master's in innovation from École Polytechnique) to the modernization of the luxury conglomerate.
During his time at Tiffany, he managed to modernize the company's image with campaigns like About Love, featuring Jay-Z and Beyoncé, who wore the famous 128-carat yellow diamond and was the guest of honor at the lavish wedding of Alexandre Arnault and Géraldine Guyot, founder of the accessories brand DEstree, in Venice in 2021.
The lavish wedding in the city of canals was a demonstration of Alexandre's appeal among American celebrities. In addition to the ubiquitous presence of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West also joined, with Kanye West performing live Runaway and Flashing Lights, wearing a mask in pure Venetian style. Also among the guests was tennis player Roger Federer, although Usain Bolt, another notable friend of the groom who also has a preference for the sports world, was not seen.
The couple, who got engaged after a year and a half of relationship, previously had a civil marriage in a slightly more discreet ceremony in Paris. Géraldine Guyot wore a white silk dress from Loewe for the occasion and celebrated the "I do" on social media: "I am taking the step from a life towards love and happiness, wearing the dress of my dreams."