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LVMH’s plans for the Paris 2024 Olympics are shaping up. On Wednesday, the event’s official partner hosted a cocktail party at Louis Vuitton’s historic home in Asnières, near Paris. The occasion was the unveiling of medals and torch trunks created for this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics Games, which will run from 26 July to 11 August and 28 August to 8 September, respectively.
It comes as anticipation builds in the French capital ahead of the games, which will be an unprecedented coming together of the worlds of luxury and sport. Some 15.3 million visitors are expected in Paris during the event, up from 6.4 million last summer, according to the Paris Tourist Office (11.3 million for the Olympics and 4 million for the Paralympics). Yet nervousness remains about whether the inevitable disruption around the city will be offset by a boost in the city’s attractiveness in the wake of the event, potentially translating into sales in luxury stores in the following months.
“This is the third time after the announcement and the unveiling of the Chaumet medals that we’ve shown something concrete about the creative partnership,” Antoine Arnault, head of LVMH image and environment, told guests on Wednesday. “I realise the strength and power of the Olympics,” he added, paying homage to the organisers, the artisans and athletes.
“Achieving the impossible is a feeling shared by athletes, and this attitude is also that of Vuitton, a spirit of positivity and optimism,” added Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton.
As previously reported, LVMH spent €150 million to seal its premium partnership, according to sources. Its brands are showing up across the event: in addition to the medals designed by LVMH-owned jeweller Chaumet, Berluti has created some 1,400 outfits for the French delegation to wear at the various ceremonies, which will be unveiled next month (France’s athletes’ uniforms were designed by Stéphane Ashpool in partnership with Le Coq Sportif). LVMH’s Moët & Chandon will release bottles festooned with the French flag.
LVMH’s jewellery and watch brands (except for Chaumet for the medals only) are not taking part, given Omega — owned by Swatch Group — is the official timekeeper of the Olympics. No plan has been announced for LVMH’s luxury hotel Cheval Blanc, which boasts a prime view of the opening ceremony venue (as does the Louis Vuitton HQ).
Louis Vuitton’s trunks will protect and display the torches, which will travel across France in the lead-up to the games. The Olympic torch — conceived by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur — will arrive from Olympia to Marseille on 8 May before travelling to Paris on 14 July for Bastille Day.
LVMH has signed seven athlete ambassadors: fencer Enzo Lefort, para-athlete sprinter Timothée Adolphe, rugby player Antoine Dupont, swimmer Léon Marchand, gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos, wheelchair tennis champion Pauline Déroulède and para-cyclist Marie Patouillet. (Lefort, Adolphe, Dupont and Marchand are also Louis Vuitton ambassadors, while de Jesus dos Santos, Déroulède and Patouillet are Dior ambassadors.)
The opening ceremony will take place on the Seine on 26 July at 7.30pm local time. Some 326,000 spectators are expected. Delegations’ boats will be parading on the river, from East to West, over a distance of 6 kilometres (3.7 miles). Expect around 100 heads of state and a host of celebrities in the stands.
“The three-hour broadcast is expected to have a very big impact,” says Réné Celestin, who was tapped to produce the ceremony with Paname 24, the company he co-founded with other agencies Auditoire, Havas Events and Double2. (Celestin is founder of OBO, the production company behind the Ami Paris, Erdem and Viktor & Rolf shows.) The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 reached a global broadcast audience of more than 3 billion people. (By comparison, the Super Bowl this year drew 123.7 million viewers in the US, plus 62.5 million outside the US.)
Asked by reporters on Wednesday about LVMH’s involvement in the ceremony and the wider partnership, Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Olympic organising committee, said: “We have a lot of discussions with them. Our vision and ambition are the same: we want to do things that are unprecedented and exceptional.”
Fashion week implications
As reported, Paris Men’s fashion week will be held from 18 to 23 June, and the autumn couture season will be held from 24-27 June, a week earlier than usual to accommodate the Olympics. The third edition of Vogue World will be held at the Place Vendôme on the eve of couture, 23 June. The event celebrating fashion and sports will involve a number of talents, including Carine Roitfeld, Ib Kamara, Palais Galliera curator Alexandre Samson, makeup artist Pat McGrath and Parris Goebel, the dancer and choreographer behind Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII halftime show.
The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM) has established a list of approximately 260 venues that are commonly used for shows every season for the Paris prefecture of police to review and give them colours — green, orange and red — depending on their accessibility. This season, the list will be smaller due to the setting up of Olympic infrastructures across Paris. Therefore, Palais de Tokyo, already a hub for Paris Fashion Week, will be home to an even greater number of shows.
Despite the logistical challenges, around 90 per cent of the men and couture calendars have confirmed their participation to date, according to the Federation.
Officine Générale founder and CEO Pierre Mahéo says he is still questioning whether to hold a runway show during Paris men’s week in June. “The French Federation is very supportive and is keeping us informed, really doing its best,” he says, but he adds: “The fashion show is the tip of the iceberg. There’s the wholesale session, and we lack visibility: will foreign buyers come to Paris?” The brand could rely on its showrooms in New York, Milan, Munich and Copenhagen instead, he points out.
He is also concerned about Paris boutiques as traffic will be heavily restricted in some areas during the Olympics and affected from 1 July (which falls during the sales period in France).
“The pain will begin from 1 to 15 July, with several Parisian bridges closed to traffic,” Laurent Nunez, prefect of police of Paris, told Franceinfo. Five bridges will remain open, he added.
FHCM says it is working very closely with the Paris prefecture of police, city hall, the Paris 2024 Olympic organising committee, the interministerial delegation for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the minister of culture to ensure the smooth running of fashion week.
“Anticipation is key,” says Pascal Morand, executive president of FHCM. “Each time we have had challenges to deal with, we have improved.”
According to the Paris Tourist Office, the lion’s share of visitors during the Olympics (86.7 per cent of the 11.3 million) will be from France. Bénédicte Epinay, CEO of French luxury association Comité Colbert, says: “We'll see in hindsight whether the extreme visibility of Paris during this period will have an impact on the arrival of top spenders afterwards, as it did in London after London 2012.”
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