Quiet luxury might be its way out, and the CEO of LVMH US is pretty happy about it.
“I think, hopefully, we’re past the term quiet luxury, that was getting pretty annoying,” the CEO of LVMH US, Anish Melwani, said on a panel at the Milken conference in California on Tuesday.
Melwani went on to describe how quiet luxury has played out in two of LVMH’s major maisons — Loro Piana and Fendi.
“If you ask Loro Piana, they would say, ‘We’ve been doing quiet luxury for 50 years.’ And, you know, and if you actually look at Fendi — Fendi has had its periods where it’s been heavily logoed and monogrammed, and there’s been periods where less than 2% of the product line had any logo on it at all,” Melwani said.
Melwani said LVMH’s chief, Bernard Arnault, has recognized that customers who purchase luxury goods “are not monolithic in what makes them feel accomplished.”
He added that the maisons in LVMH’s portfolio use their heritage to create a “feeling of desirability.”
Representatives for LVMH declined to comment further when contacted.
Quiet luxury has been the dominant trend in fashion post-COVID-19. It involves purchasing well-made, exquisitely tailored clothes that lean into minimalism. The trend’s popularity has also seen a boost from TV shows like “Succession,” where its characters shun logos and opt for effortless luxe over “ludicrously capacious,” logo-heavy bags.
More importantly, quiet luxury precipitated a push for clothes without flashy logo buckles or prints, which benefited brands like Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli, and Hermès over some of the big names in LVMH’s stable of luxury houses, including Dior, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton.
Bank of America analysts said in January that the quiet luxury trend might just be killing big luxury brands. That’s because logos not being part of the designs make it way easier for people to replicate high-end looks with low-cost dupes, the analysts said.
That analyst note followed a bad year for luxury. LVMH and its industry cohorts’ earnings slumped in 2024 amid macroeconomic headwinds.
LVMH has had a rocky start to 2025. On April 14, the company reported first-quarter revenue of €20.3 billion, down 2% from a year earlier.
In its April 14 earnings statement, however, the company said it “showed good resilience and maintained its powerful innovative momentum despite a disrupted geopolitical and economic environment.”
LVMH stock is down 23% so far this year in Paris.
Melwani has been the chairman and CEO of LVMH in North America since 2016. Prior to that, he was a senior partner at McKinsey.
