Hermès International plan to open two new manufacturing sites to its French network by 2020.

The luxury brand will build plants in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, and in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, southeast of Paris, where it has been present since 1996 following the acquisition of the Gordon Choisy tannery. Each site will eventually employ 250 craftspeople specializing in leather goods.

Today the maker of Birkin bags and silk scarves has 15 plants in France, most of which employ between 250 and 300 people. In 2016, Hermès invested 71 million euros in its production facilities and secured its supply chain. Continue reading →

The French company L’Occitane International reported unaudited first-half sales declined by 0.6% year-over-year, dampened by business in the U.S., U.K. and Japan.  A few decade ago Reinold Geiger, former AMS company, transformed his plastic money and petroleum industry into a supposed natural perfume & cosmetic products from Provence. Lie is not always successfull!

The company, which did not disclose profit figures, said net sales in the six months ended Sept. 30 were 548.2 million euros. Revenues in the U.S. and U.K. declined by 11.1% and 11.4%, respectively. Japan, the group’s largest single market, posted a 4.8% decrease.

Emerging markets China and Brazil made up for some of the weakness, though. L’Occitane in China, its third largest market, saw a 18.2% surge in sales, continuing on from a strong first quarter. Continue reading →

LVMH has just signed a purchase agreement for an approximately 300 acre ranch located in Alvarado, Tex., an outer suburb of Dallas with a population of roughly 4,000.

The purchase price is estimated at 111 acres of land for $832,500 in that region.

The land acquired by Louis Vuitton is set to become the site of its newest leather goods manufacture, the third of its kind in the U.S. The first two are in California.

Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chairman and chief executive officer, earlier this year said during a meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump that his company was looking to expand its manufacturing presence in the U.S.

While Texas may not be the most obvious choice for a luxury brand so steeped in French culture, Johnson County alone is composed of half a dozen cattle farms, and cattle ranching is one of the state’s biggest industries. Continue reading →

Lucia Dumas (nothing to see with Dumas of Hermès) has been named Executive Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs at L’Oréal and will join the group’s executive committee in January.

She is succeeding to Isabel Marey-Semper, who will be leaving the company. Since 2012, Lucia Dumas has served as Vice President of Communication at Essilor. She formerly held the same post in the Rhodia Group during five years, and took part in the implementation of the merger with Solvay, having been in charge of its press relations.

She began her career at Moulinex Group, where she had international and external communications roles, and prior to that graduated from the European Business School in marketing and international strategies. In statement, L’Oréal highlighted Dumas’ diverse expertise and knowledge of industrial sectors where innovation and technology play a key role. Continue reading →

“I am sure that they are watching us from heaven and that they are insanely proud,” said Betty Catroux, at the inauguration of the Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech.

It is in Morocco that he found the range of colors he used: the zelliges, zouacs, djellabas and caftans. The boldness seen in his work is owed to this country in which he drew his forceful harmonies, his audacious combinations, to the fervor of its creativity. He absorbed the culture, transformed and adapted it.

The institution opened to the public on Oct. 19, a little more than a month after the death of Pierre Bergé.

When Yves Saint Laurent first discovered Marrakech in 1966, he was so moved by the city that he immediately decided to buy a house here, and returned regularly. It feels perfectly natural, 50 years later, to build a museum dedicated to his oeuvre, which was so inspired this country. Continue reading →

Hervé L. Leroux, the French designer famous for creating form-fitting bandage dresses that were the uniform of Nineties models, died at the age of 60. Leroux, who was born in Bapaume in northern France, started his career as Hervé Léger but lost the commercial use of his name in 1999 after BCBG Max Azria bought the brand.

He began his career as a hairdresser before seguing into hats. In the early Eighties, he met Karl Lagerfeld, with whom he worked at Fendi and subsequently at Chanel. It is Karl Lagerfeld who first suggested him the name “Léger” and subsequently came up with the name Leroux, he told Canadian web site Canoe.com last year.

Leroux founded his ready-to-wear label in 1985, developing the signature bandage technique that sculpted the body like shapewear. Under the Leroux brand, he specialized in draped jersey, creating glamorous gowns that heightened the wearer’s natural assets, which he preferred on the curvy side. Continue reading →