Bernard Arnault Quotes

102 Bernard Arnault Quotes

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Designers are closer to artists than to engineers. They’re not like normal managers, and you have to balance their creativity and rationality. John, Karl, Marc, they’re genius. You can’t put them into a rational environment. They’re sometimes late, and you have to accept that if you work with them, you have to be understanding with them.
Bernard Arnault

[In 2005] We are pretty confident on the new product flow. We have a lot of very interesting products, in perfume, in cosmetics, in Louis Vuitton we have the cherry bag that you see now with Uma Thurman.
Bernard Arnault

Economically we are pretty confident.
Bernard Arnault

[On increasing our prices] Our products are so in demand that we can do it.
Bernard Arnault

We are very fair with the consumer.
Bernard Arnault

[In 2005] We have a lot of superstars… We have 50 brands.
Bernard Arnault

[In 2009] We are completely open to selling our products on the internet because the internet is the future.
Bernard Arnault

The problem on the internet is when you have …[a fake] seller who tries to use our brands to sell cheap products from very low salary countries.
Bernard Arnault

The luxury industry is a key for Europe.
Bernard Arnault

We are employing more than 500,000 people in Europe.
Bernard Arnault



The problem in Europe is that we have a selective distribution system that allow the products to be sold in shops that follow a level of quality. And that’s very expensive to build…
Bernard Arnault

Mastering the paradox of star brands is very difficult and rare, fortunately.
Bernard Arnault

A new product is not creative—it is not important—if it does not shock when you first see it.
Bernard Arnault

I don’t have alarm bells when it comes to creativity.
Bernard Arnault

If you think and act like a typical manager around creative people—with rules, policies, data on customer preferences, and so forth—you will quickly kill their talent.
Bernard Arnault

Our whole business is based on giving our artists and designers complete freedom to invent without limits.
Bernard Arnault

Our philosophy is quite simple, really.
Bernard Arnault

If you look over a creative person’s shoulder, he will stop doing great work. Wouldn’t you, if some manager were watching your every move, clutching a calculator in his hand?
Bernard Arnault

Each brand very much runs itself, headed by its own artistic director.
Bernard Arnault

I assure you, we do not lurk around every corner, questioning every creative decision. The most successful creative people… want to see their creations in the street. They don’t invent just to invent.
Bernard Arnault



The true artists that make LVMH a success… They want people to wear their dresses, or spray their perfume, or carry the luggage they have designed.
Bernard Arnault

The responsibility of the manager in a company dependent on innovation… becomes picking the right creative people—the ones who want to see their designs on the street.
Bernard Arnault

Most artists don’t go around proclaiming, ‘I want to be a commercial success.’ They would actually hate to say that.
Bernard Arnault

It just takes experience. Years of practice—trial and error—and you learn.
Bernard Arnault

It was a new concept—edgy, ahead of anyone’s thinking. It made everyone talk.
Bernard Arnault

You cannot compromise creativity at its birth.
Bernard Arnault

We did not begin the creative process by talking about the bottom line.
Bernard Arnault

Not long ago, I said to one of our designers, ‘Why don’t you take a trip to Japan and see what the teenage girls are wearing on the streets at night?… I did not say to the designer, Go and see what kinds of shoes they are wearing and copy them.’
Bernard Arnault

You can’t charge a premium price for giving people what they expect…
Bernard Arnault

With some businesses, you cannot avoid risk, and sometimes you do not succeed.
Bernard Arnault



Even great talent could not launch a brand from zero. A brand must have a heritage; there are no shortcuts.
Bernard Arnault

Star brands take time to grow.
Bernard Arnault

We know we must nurture them until they have some history. But even if it takes ten or 15 years for them to become stars, that has been an amazing investment, right?
Bernard Arnault

Money has never represented, in my view, an objective or even an indicator of any significance. I've been fascinated for a long time by artistic creation and by the search for perfection, of the highest level.
Bernard Arnault

Formidable marques. But they do not have the mythic dimension that Dior or Vuitton have.
Bernard Arnault

You can tell time, dress beautifully or wear makeup produced by one of our brands anywhere in the world, regardless of your nationality, your beliefs or your culture.
Bernard Arnault

It is a bit of a paradox.
Bernard Arnault

It's a meeting between two personalities of different natures — the creative people and the organizers, water and fire. But out of the contradiction can come progress.
Bernard Arnault

When you are on the management side, you still have to understand the artistic sensibility so that there is a dialogue with the creative side.
Bernard Arnault

Working in the context of ultra-famous brands like Dior and Vuitton, creative spirits are always going to feel reined in. It's important that they are free to develop ideas.
Bernard Arnault



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