LVMH Acquires Luxury Travel's Belmond Hotels | Will Bernard Arnault Help Save The Elephants

LVMH Acquires Luxury Travel's Belmond Hotels | Will Bernard Arnault Help Save The Elephants

AOC awoke Saturday morning to news that LVMH has set in motion the acquisition of Belmond Hotels. “Belmond, a fast-growing company based in London, offers its wealthy customers some of the most opulent travel experiences money can buy in settings like the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro and Orient Express trains connecting major European cities,” wrote The New York Times.

LVMH, the world’s largest luxury company based on revenues from brands like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Fendi, offered to pay $25 a share for Belmond, a premium of more than 40 percent on the company’s closing price, in a deal valued at $2.6 billion.

The deal emphasized the limitless financial resources available to the world’s very rich customers. as well as the ongoing move away from buying ‘things’ and the growing appetite for ‘experiences’. This transition to the value of ‘experiences’ is pronounced among the entire younger generation, regardless of income, and dovetails well with their environmental concerns over accumulating more stuff.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Friday’s Porter Edit had a sponsored post from Belmond Africa, based in South Africa and Botswana. The luxury hotel jumping off point gave us an opportunity to update the hot topic of the well-being of Botswana’s elephants, the largest elephant population in Africa and one that has been relatively stable until disputed reports of almost 90 dead elephants hit headlines in September.

LA Moves To Ban Fur Sales & Manufacture, Following San Francisco, West Hollywood & Berkeley

LA Moves To Ban Fur Sales & Manufacture, Following San Francisco, West Hollywood & Berkeley

Los Angeles, long associated with red carpet glitz and glamour, has voted to ban the sale of fur products, making it the largest American city to respond to a unanimous City Council vote to draft an ordinance that will ultimately prohibit the manufacture and sale of new fur products within the city.

Projected to take two years to institute, the first step is to draft a city ordinance that takes into consideration “how fur apparel is utilized by religious organizations, and possible exemptions, as well as potential conflicts with federal and state laws relating to sale of fur products derived from legally trapped animals,” writes The LA Times.

West Hollywood already has a fur ban, but the law was changed to exempt fur from animals legally trapped under state law. Berkeley and San Francisco have fur bans, adapted to comply with local laws and ordinances.

Keith Kaplan, spokesman for the Fur Information Council of America, a trade group for manufacturers and fur merchants, argued that global retail fur sales are $35.8 billion and that more than 1 million people were employed, as of 2014.

Big industry brands abandoning fur in their collections include Michael Kors, Armani, Gucci and most recently Burberry.

The current London Fashion Week promoted itself as being fur free.

L Brands Will Close Henri Bendel To Focus On Struggling Victoria's Secret & Pink

L Brands Will Close Henri Bendel To Focus On Struggling Victoria's Secret & Pink

American retailer L Brands Inc, owner of Victoria’s Secret, Pink and Bath & Body Works announced that it will be closing all 23 Henri Bendel stores, including the historic Fifth Avenue Manhattan flagship to “focus on increasing shareholder value.”

L Brands stock has had a very rough ride in recent years with sales and profits in serious decline at both Victoria’s Secret and now Pink.

Henri Bendel was founded in 1895 when Henri Bendel moved to New York City from Lafayette, La to make hats for Manhattan’s elite. It was the arrival of Geraldine Stutz as president in 1959 that put Bendel on the international fashion map with stylish shoppers carrying the store’s brown and white shopping bags in all the best places.

Eye on Dior: Jennifer Lawrence in Dior's Pre-Fall 2018 Campaign | Bernard Arnault Now Richest Man In Europe

Eye on Dior: Jennifer Lawrence in Dior's Pre-Fall 2018 Campaign | Bernard Arnault Now Richest Man In Europe

Jennifer Lawrence continues her Dior love affair, appearing as the face of Dior's pre-fall 2018 campaign. Lawrence poses in relaxed, tailored looks designed by Maria Grazia Chuiri, Dior's creative director. 

More Maria Grazia Chiuri on Feminism

Since her appointment as the first female artistic director of Christian Dior in July 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri has been writing a new chapter in the storied house's history, using feminism and female empowerment as a platform for her own political ends.  “When I arrived, I decided to think about femininity in a way that is contemporary,” she says. “The women are different now.”

Simply stated, the Dior brand must extend far beyond cocktail dresses. And in an epic leap taken by very few luxury brands, Chiuri brings moral messaging into the topic of brand desirability.