The New Tiffany, Unboxed – The New York Instances
For almost 4 years, the Tiffany & Firm flagship retailer on the nook of Fifth Avenue and East 57th Road was shrouded in scaffolding whereas it underwent a full-bore renovation. Within the days earlier than the reopening, set for April 28, a Tiffany govt vp, Alexandre Arnault, and the corporate’s chief govt, Anthony Ledru, monitored ultimate preparations as they whispered to one another in French.
Show 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 chicken fluttering throughout the New York Metropolis skyline.
“We requested ourselves plenty of questions going into this,” Mr. Ledru, 50, stated. “Are we going to vary the texture? Will we respect custom? We determined to do each.”
He gestured towards the digitized chicken, noting that it was primarily based on a design by the famous Tiffany jewellery artist Jean Schlumberger.
“There’s that rigidity: modernity and heritage,” he stated.
Rather a lot has modified at Tiffany because the makeover started. Particularly, 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 important American model acquisition so far.
In impact, the jewellery emporium turned the property of Bernard Arnault, the 74-year-old founder, chairman and largest shareholder of LVMH, who lately dethroned Elon Musk because the world’s richest individual, in line with 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 employees toiled away on the bottom ground final week, one among Mr. Arnault’s 5 youngsters, Alexandre Arnault, 30, stood close to the spot the place “Equals Pi,” a portray by Jean-Michel Basquiat, would go. The portray, which contains a shade of blue much like Tiffany’s signature colour, appeared prominently in Tiffany’s 2021 “About Love” advert marketing campaign starring Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
“When individuals enter from Fifth Avenue, they may see the Basquiat,” stated Alexandre Arnault, who wore a Dior go well with and Loro Piana sneakers. “It’s an vital a part of the Tiffany model now.”
Tall and lanky, Mr. Arnault, who’s liable for a lot of Tiffany’s artistic imaginative and prescient, was one of many architects of the “About Love” marketing campaign. Using the Basquiat spurred a little bit of controversy when a former Basquiat assistant insisted that the artist hadn’t meant any homage to the model.
However that didn’t matter a lot from a advertising perspective: The Tiffany identify was within the information for days, signaling that it now 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 brand new Tiffany, the LVMH Tiffany, was exhibiting itself as a model that is also disruptive and viral.
Amid hypothesis about which of the Arnault youngsters 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. Earlier than transferring from Paris to New York two years in the past to immerse himself within the challenge, he reinvigorated the bags firm Rimowa, one other LVMH model, via 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 business 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 isn’t simply one other flagship,” Mr. Ledru stated. “For us, the Landmark is now the lighthouse of the model.”
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 want to imprint its DNA onto the corporate based in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Younger.
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 embody a Daniel Boulud restaurant, the Blue Field Cafe, which serves a “Breakfast at Tiffany” meal, and an Audrey Hepburn expertise room that contains a duplicate of her black Givenchy gown from the film’s opening scene. (LVMH acquired Givenchy in 1988.)
“Individuals relate lots to her on the subject of Tiffany,” Mr. Arnault stated. “So we needed to make a homage to her.”
Whereas 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 ground specialised in wedding ceremony and engagement rings, the fourth in gold and diamonds, the fifth in silver and the sixth in house items and equipment. The seventh ground included a Patek Philippe division and a jewellery workshop.
Mr. Ledru described the nuances that went into designing every ground, 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 method to public relations, LVMH wouldn’t disclose the Landmark’s building price. A publicist, who sat in on the interview, stated beforehand that inquiries concerning the LVMH succession had been off-limits. Nonetheless, Mr. Arnault and Mr. Ledru fielded a couple 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 stated. “No. As a result of I’m surrounded by the most effective professionals we might have.”
On the eve of the Landmark’s opening, had been they involved about discuss {that a} recession could also be on its method?
“There’s ups and downs, however the one factor concerning the U.S. is that it comes again robust,” Mr. Ledru stated. “New York is far stronger now than it was final 12 months and the 12 months earlier than. I don’t wish to be overly assured, however we’re completely satisfied to lastly open our doorways.
Mr. Arnault added: “We’re releasing our Q1 numbers for LVMH tomorrow. I encourage you to take 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 employees protesting in opposition to pension adjustments stormed LVMH’s Paris headquarters, calling for the wealthy to contribute extra financing to the state pension.)
In the event that they weren’t nervous concerning the economic system, had been they anxious about anything?
“I’m anxious for the primary vacation season,” Mr. Arnault stated. “It’s such an vital a part of American tradition. That is the primary one again on the unique Tiffany’s nook.”
“We had been much more anxious a 12 months in the past, once we had been receiving cellphone calls from Mr. Arnault asking, ‘When do you open?’” Mr. Ledru stated.
After the 2 males completed their tour of the Landmark, they stepped onto the constructing’s eighth ground deck. They stood within the recent spring breeze as they took within the view of Fifth Avenue.
“Pas mal, non?” Mr. Ledru stated. (“Not dangerous, no?”)
Whereas building employees hammered away behind them, hurrying so as to add the ultimate touches on a glass-walled occasion area, Mr. Arnault took be aware 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 way in which.
He smiled.
“I can spy on them,” Mr. Arnault stated. “I can ensure they’re working from right here.”