NEW YORK/PARIS - Louis Vuitton owner LVMH has approached Tiffany & Co with a $14.5 billion acquisition offer, people familiar with the matter said, at a time when the US luxury jeweler grapples with the impact of tariffs on its exports to China.
LVMH, which has for years been looking for ways to expand in the US market, submitted a preliminary, non-binding offer to Tiffany earlier this month, one of the sources said.
LVMH's offer valued Tiffany at about $120 per share, another of the sources added. Tiffany shares ended trading on Friday at $98.55.
Tiffany has hired advisers to review LVMH's offer but has not yet responded to it, and there is no certainty that it will negotiate a deal, according to the sources.
The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. LVMH and Tiffany declined to comment. Bloomberg News reported earlier on Saturday that LVMH was holding talks with Tiffany.
LVMH, which is behind brands such as Fendi, Christian Dior and Givenchy, as well as Veuve Cliquot champagne, has stood out for several years as one of the top performers in the upscale retail sector, where not all labels are benefiting to the same degree from booming Chinese appetite for branded goods.
Tiffany, on the other hand, has not been as resilient. Beyond the tariffs that have been triggered by the trade war between the United States and China, a lower Chinese domestic sales tax has also contributed to double-digit decreases in its sales to Chinese tourists in the United States and in other destinations.
High-end brands have also long relied on Hong Kong as a major shopping hub drawing visitors from mainland China in particular, and four months of pro-democracy demonstrations are starting to take their toll.
However, earlier this month LVMH, which has a market capitalization of 194 billion euros ($215 billion), beat sales forecasts for the third quarter despite the unrest in Hong Kong. In August, Tiffany reported quarterly earnings that also beat analysts' expectations, thanks to a drop in marketing costs.
Tiffany has been refreshing its offerings with more affordable items such as pendants and earrings, to appeal to millennials who have been gravitating to lower-priced competitors such as Denmark's Pandora A/S and Signet Jewelers.
Paris-headquartered LVMH is controlled by the Arnault family and is led by Bernard Arnault, France's richest man. Based in New York and best known for its diamond engagement rings, Tiffany operates more than 300 retail stores globally.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BEIJING - Luxury brand Dior has become the latest company to apologize to China over a perceived insult to national sovereignty, saying Thursday it "cherishes the feelings of the Chinese people."
The French luxury brand found itself in hot water after using a map of China which did not include Taiwan, a self-ruled island which Beijing views as part of its territory awaiting reunification.
The scandal broke after a student posted an anonymous video to the Chinese social media app Weibo, purporting to show a presentation Wednesday at Zhejiang Gongshang University, in eastern China.
In the video a presenter from Dior displays a map without the island of Taiwan marked, which quickly drew criticism online and prompted Dior to deny that it represented the brand's position.
"Dior always respects and maintains the principle of One China, strictly upholds China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and cherishes the feelings of the Chinese people," the French brand said in a statement.
"The company has started to investigate seriously and promised to deal with it severely," Dior's statement read.
By Thursday afternoon, the hashtag "Dior apologizes" had more than 250 million views.
China reacts strongly to any brand that appears to insult its territorial sovereignty.
"Haven't we talked about this many times this year? It's definitely intentional," one netizen posted on Weibo.
A number of companies and international airlines have edited their websites to refer to the democratic island of Taiwan as "Taiwan, China" or "Chinese Taipei."
Hotel chain Marriott's website in China was shut down by authorities for a week in 2018 after a customer questionnaire listed Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong as separate countries, prompting the hotel chain to apologize and change the wording.
Brands that appear to support the unrest in Hong Kong have also faced consumer ire, including the territory's flagship carrier Cathay.
Jewellery brand Tiffany removed an advert showing a woman covering one eye earlier this month, after Chinese consumers accused the company of supporting protesters by referencing a well known injury.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS - Kim Jones played with time on Friday in his simultaneously classic and dystopian collaboration with Daniel Arsham, filling Christian Dior's latest menswear collection with tonal, feminine-inspired pieces with a modern edge.
The house's Summer 2020 collection linked Dior's history as the industry's salient interpreter of femininity with the French house's daring, gender-bending future by way of draped sashes and floral pins off-set with ultra-modern, sometimes tattered accessories and textures.
Amid a pink and white set, the models became explorers in a eerie, beautiful wasteland at the show during Men's Fashion Week here.
They trekked through a sea of gradient pink sand around colossal, plaster letters spelling out Dior. Each letter had a ruined aspect about it, as if the sand and wind had worn it down for millennia.
Singer Lily Allen, model Kate Moss, her daughter Lila, and Louis Vuitton menswear creative director Virgil Abloh figured among the stars present for the exploration of Dior through the ages.
The idea of relics took center stage, a favorite subject for collaborator and category-defying artist Arsham.
Known for conceptually-driven sculptures, Arsham has collaborated with Dior before, working on window installations in some of their biggest stores and stylized fitting rooms in the Los Angeles Dior Homme store for then creative director Hedi Slimane.
Beyond the sculptural element of the set and the pink-sand runway, the collection, a highlight of Paris's fashion week, too, evoked sculptural origins while simultaneously embracing long, summery, slim-cut menswear.
The models donned pieces as diverse as multi-piece suits, mesh tops, re-interpreted trenches, jumpsuits in toile and adventure-ready looks for a dystopian traveler featuring fabric draped around their necks and faces, caps and wide glasses.
The intricately designed and intellectually driven show reaffirmed parent group LVMH's effort to invest more in men's fashion on and off the runway.
Studded with jewelry and bags, the show confirms Dior's push for more accessories in menswear - items that bring in the most money for the house.
Jones' collection featured Dior's first-ever collaboration with luxury luggage brand Rimowa, giving the collection futuristic, metal handbags, clutches and backpacks.
More traditionally cut suits were accented with feminine handbags or saddle bags. The clean lines and supple cuts were punctuated by threadbare, frayed hats and other accessories.
After the show's finale, Jones appeared on stage for no more than 5 seconds.
The enigmatic designer came on board as creative director in March last year, striking the fashion world off-the-bat with a first collection that attracted the most celebrity-heavy front row in the brand's history.
Before, as head of Louis Vuitton men, he brought streetwear to the world of high fashion and then reinvigorated the art of tailoring for a more modern audience.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON -- From Princess Margaret's 21st birthday gown to Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence's red carpet dress, Christian Dior outfits that have made headlines go on show in a London exhibition dedicated to the French fashion house.
With a supporting cast of accessories, sketches and perfume bottles, "Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams" takes a close look at the history of the luxury brand he founded in 1946 and which remains the epitome of haute couture.
In all more than 500 items, the legacy of the late couturier and his six successors are on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum from February 2.
"Not only did (Dior) ... revolutionize fashion design ... but he was also important in how he did business," Oriole Cullen, Fashion and Textiles curator at the V&A, told Reuters.
"His business model was very much something which is still in use today. He wanted to look globally and at different markets."
One of the earliest outfits on show is Dior's signature Bar suit: a sculpted off-white jacket synched at the waist and black pleated skirt. The 1947 design revolutionized womenswear and was dubbed Dior's "New Look."
Another highlight is the gold straw embroidered silk bodice and full-skirted gown Dior designed for Britain's Princess Margaret's in 1951. She wore the gown for her official 21st birthday portrait.
Dior's love of Britain -- where he staged several fashion shows -- is also explored in the exhibition, which is based on a previous Paris House of Dior display.
"He was a self-confessed anglophile," Cullen said. "For him it was an important market."
Dior died in 1957, aged 52. A young Yves Saint Laurent took over and was followed by successive creative directors Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferre, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri, at the helm since 2016.
Their designs, worn by royals and celebrities, are mixed alongside the founder's, each loyal to his legacy and fascinations. Dior was superstitious -- his lucky star is on display -- and Chiuri has paid homage to that in her creations.
"Around the world Dior is Dior. Many people don't know that there were many designers at Dior," Chiuri told Reuters.
"I think we have to respect this heritage but at the same time we have to move this heritage in the future. I look around, I take a lot of inspiration but at the same time my idea is to make this element contemporary for modern women."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS - Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri took Christian Dior to the circus Monday with arguably her most sublime collection for the Paris haute couture label.
A troupe of all-female acrobats of all body shapes led out the show inside a retro big top -- complete with harlequin-pattern floor -- built in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in the centre of the French capital.
Chiuri is the first woman ever to lead the mythic French label, and her feminism is never far away.
All her nearly 70 models wore glittery skullcaps fastened under their chins -- think aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart meets commedia dell'arte character Pierrot.
But there was nothing remotely clownish about the muted elegance of the clothes, featuring lashings of embroidery and beadwork, to summon up the spirit of the circus-set 1917 ballet "Parade".
That legendary show pooled the talents of Pablo Picasso -- who did the sets and costumes -- the composer Erik Satie, writer Jean Cocteau and Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes.
Chiuri's designs mixed the romantic and the muscular, cutting her dreamy organza and tulle dresses with whip smart ringmaster and lion tamer jackets, leather corsets and high-wire jumpsuits.
"Every look has its own personality, just like circus characters," she told AFP, "brave, funny, happy and sad."
"The circus is a world of its own, which passes from town to town, changing each one a little as it goes -- a bit like fashion week," the creator added.
TATTOOED LADY
The tattooed lady, that staple of the Victorian sideshow, also got a drum roll with a look inspired by Maud Wagner, America's first known female tattoo artist.
The designer, who sports a few herself, floated surrealist neck tattoos in a previous show.
Critics predicted her silk bandage roll gowns and architectural tutus would also be a hit with haute couture's super-rich clientele, the only people who can afford the handmade creations which are shown only in Paris.
Chiuri said she took her powdery palette from the stage curtain Picasso painted for "Parade", with bolder colors almost having to fight their way through what she called the "fine dust that sprinkles stage clothes".
The designer has put her unabashed feminism at the core of the brand since she took the reins at Dior in 2016.
Previous shows have involved collaborations with women writers, musicians and choreographers.
This time she worked with the female-led British acrobat company Mimbre.
Chiuri said she was struck by how inclusive the circus world was, and how it offered "a possible equality... where beauty, origin, gender and age are no longer important. Only technique and daring matter."
It was this that inspired the collection's necklaces and bracelets of interlocking gold hands. An acrobat "puts their life in the hands of another, you have to really trust each other", she said.
Feminism was the big theme of the day on the Paris catwalks, with Italian actress and #MeToo campaigner Asia Argento taking a starring role in her Roman neighbor Antonio Grimaldi's spring/summer collection.
She wore an asymmetrically cut white sleeveless dress adorned with ostrich feathers designed to show off her tattoos as a cheeky take on the wedding dresses that traditionally close couture shows.
While the Italian designer praised her courage and "unconventional spirit", Argento told AFP that she "loved his sculptural couture".
Few designers anywhere, however, can match the sculptural verve of the Dutch Iris Van Herpen, whose gravity-defying creations were the fruit of collaboration with New York artist and former NASA engineer Kim Keever.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
