For practically 4 years, the Tiffany & Company flagship retailer on the nook of Fifth Avenue and East 57th Street was shrouded in scaffolding whereas it underwent a full-bore renovation. In the times earlier than the reopening, set for April 28, a Tiffany govt vice chairman, Alexandre Arnault, and the corporate’s chief govt, Anthony Ledru, monitored closing preparations as they whispered to one another in French.
Display circumstances glittered with Tiffany items — coronary heart tag bracelets, Elsa Peretti Bone cuffs and Paloma Picasso necklaces. Digital screens encircling the room confirmed an animation of a diamond-encrusted chook fluttering throughout the New York City skyline.
“We asked ourselves lots of questions going into this,” Mr. Ledru, 50, mentioned. “Are we going to change the feel? Do we respect tradition? We decided to do both.”
He gestured towards the digitized chook, noting that it was based mostly on a design by the famous Tiffany jewellery artist Jean Schlumberger.
“There’s that tension: modernity and heritage,” he mentioned.
Lots has modified at Tiffany for the reason that makeover started. Namely, the corporate’s possession. In 2021, after fraught negotiations, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired Tiffany for about $16 billion. The sale was one of many largest offers ever within the luxurious world, in addition to LVMH’s most vital American model acquisition up to now.
In impact, the jewellery emporium turned the property of Bernard Arnault, the 74-year-old founder, chairman and largest shareholder of LVMH, who just lately dethroned Elon Musk because the world’s richest individual, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Over three many years, he has constructed a kingdom of greater than 75 manufacturers, together with Dior, Celine, TAG Heuer, Bulgari, Fendi, Dom Pérignon and Sephora.
As building staff toiled away on the bottom flooring final week, certainly one of Mr. Arnault’s 5 kids, Alexandre Arnault, 30, stood close to the spot the place “Equals Pi,” a portray by Jean-Michel Basquiat, would go. The portray, which incorporates a shade of blue just like Tiffany’s signature colour, appeared prominently in Tiffany’s 2021 “About Love” advert marketing campaign starring Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
“When people enter from Fifth Avenue, they will see the Basquiat,” mentioned Alexandre Arnault, who wore a Dior go well with and Loro Piana sneakers. “It’s an important part of the Tiffany brand now.”
Tall and lanky, Mr. Arnault, who’s accountable for a lot of Tiffany’s inventive imaginative and prescient, was one of many architects of the “About Love” marketing campaign. The use of the Basquiat spurred a little bit of controversy when a former Basquiat assistant insisted that the artist hadn’t supposed any homage to the model.
But that didn’t matter a lot from a advertising perspective: The Tiffany title was within the news for days, signaling that it not belonged solely to the period when Holly Golightly (portrayed by Audrey Hepburn) admired the vitrines of its flagship within the 1961 movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” The new Tiffany, the LVMH Tiffany, was exhibiting itself as a model that is also disruptive and viral.
Amid hypothesis about which of the Arnault kids will succeed the LVMH founder, Alexandre Arnault was tasked with the job of overseeing the renovation of the Tiffany retailer, which the corporate calls the Landmark. Before transferring from Paris to New York two years in the past to immerse himself within the undertaking, he reinvigorated the bags firm Rimowa, one other LVMH model, by means of collaborations with Virgil Abloh and Supreme.
Mr. Ledru, the Tiffany chief govt, who was born within the Brittany space of France and raised in Lille, is a luxurious trade veteran who has labored for Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston and Cartier. When a droplet of blood appeared on his chin that afternoon, the results of a shaving reduce, a publicist hurried to fetch him a serviette.
“This is not just another flagship,” Mr. Ledru mentioned. “For us, the Landmark is now the lighthouse of the brand.”
The reboot left the constructing’s facade untouched, and the Atlas statue clock nonetheless sits above its entrance, nevertheless it spared little else. The Landmark unabashedly represents LVMH’s need to imprint its DNA onto the corporate based in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young.
The Tiffany flagship opened on Fifth Avenue in 1940. When the intestine renovation started in 2019, the shop moved into the previous Niketown web site subsequent door. The Landmark was designed by the architect Peter Marino, and its 10 flooring are replete with works by artists like Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince and Rashid Johnson. Flashy accouterments embrace a Daniel Boulud restaurant, the Blue Box Cafe, which serves a “Breakfast at Tiffany” meal, and an Audrey Hepburn expertise room that incorporates a reproduction of her black Givenchy gown from the film’s opening scene. (LVMH acquired Givenchy in 1988.)
“People relate a lot to her when it comes to Tiffany,” Mr. Arnault mentioned. “So we wanted to make a homage to her.”
While giving a tour of the constructing to a reporter, the 2 executives walked up an undulating mirror-lined staircase impressed by Ms. Peretti’s designs. The third flooring specialised in wedding ceremony and engagement rings, the fourth in gold and diamonds, the fifth in silver and the sixth in residence items and equipment. The seventh flooring included a Patek Philippe division and a jewellery workshop.
Mr. Ledru described the nuances that went into designing every flooring, whereas Mr. Arnault strayed from the press tour, inspecting aspect rooms and taking images along with his cellphone.
Earlier, the 2 executives had sat for a extra formal interview on a inexperienced sofa in a book-lined room. Conservative and tight-lipped in its strategy to public relations, LVMH wouldn’t disclose the Landmark’s building value. A publicist, who sat in on the interview, mentioned beforehand that inquiries in regards to the LVMH succession have been off-limits. Nonetheless, Mr. Arnault and Mr. Ledru fielded a number of hot-seat questions.
At age 30, was Mr. Arnault feeling any warmth to ship on his mission for the household?
“Am I sweating?” he mentioned. “No. Because I’m surrounded by the best professionals we could have.”
On the eve of the Landmark’s opening, have been they involved about discuss {that a} recession could also be on its method?
“There’s ups and downs, but the one thing about the U.S. is that it comes back strong,” Mr. Ledru mentioned. “New York is much stronger now than it was last year and the year before. I don’t want to be overly confident, but we’re happy to finally open our doors.
Mr. Arnault added: “We’re releasing our Q1 numbers for LVMH tomorrow. I encourage you to have a look.”
(The day after the interview, LVMH reported a 17 p.c rise in first-quarter gross sales, surpassing analyst expectations. In response, French staff protesting in opposition to pension modifications stormed LVMH’s Paris headquarters, calling for the wealthy to contribute extra financing to the state pension.)
If they weren’t nervous in regards to the economic system, have been they fearful about anything?
“I’m anxious for the first holiday season,” Mr. Arnault mentioned. “It’s such an important part of American culture. This is the first one back at the original Tiffany’s corner.”
“We were a lot more anxious a year ago, when we were receiving phone calls from Mr. Arnault asking, ‘When do you open?’” Mr. Ledru mentioned.
After the 2 males completed their tour of the Landmark, they stepped onto the constructing’s eighth flooring deck. They stood within the recent spring breeze as they took within the view of Fifth Avenue.
“Pas mal, non?” Mr. Ledru mentioned. (“Not bad, no?”)
While building staff hammered away behind them, hurrying so as to add the ultimate touches on a glass-walled occasion area, Mr. Arnault took word of a number of different LVMH properties inside his sight: There was Louis Vuitton simply throughout the road, Bulgari reverse it and Dior down the best way.
He smiled.
“I can spy on them,” Mr. Arnault mentioned. “I can make sure they’re working from here.”
Source: www.nytimes.com