Louis Vuitton Holds 'Voyager' Fashion Show in Shanghai

A logo of Louis Vuitton is displayed on a Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, March 30, 2024. (Reuters)
A logo of Louis Vuitton is displayed on a Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, March 30, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
20

Louis Vuitton Holds 'Voyager' Fashion Show in Shanghai

A logo of Louis Vuitton is displayed on a Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, March 30, 2024. (Reuters)
A logo of Louis Vuitton is displayed on a Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, March 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Louis Vuitton debuted its newly-labeled "Voyager" traveling show in Shanghai on Thursday night, showing off asymmetric hemlines and boxy leather vests in the country that is one of the brand's key markets.
More than 1,000 invitees, including international celebrities like Cate Blanchett and local stars such as Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Wang, took in the pre-fall collection designed by women's artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière, Reuters said.
The show was held in the cavernous concrete expanse of the Atelier Deshaus-designed Long Museum, in the riverside West Bund art district. It included pieces made in collaboration with Beijing-based artist Sun Yitian, who painstakingly paints photographs of inflated plastic animals, including ducklings, cats and rabbits. Reprints of her works were incorporated into the opening designs of the show.
In the days leading up to the show, images of Sun's work popped up around Shanghai, China's most international city, projected onto the exterior of malls and plastering walls in hip shopping and lifestyle districts.
For Louis Vuitton, the largest luxury brand in the LVMH stable, China continues to represent one of the world's most important luxury opportunities, even as a broader economic slowdown and consumer malaise stymie growth.
LVMH said on Tuesday that year-on-year sales for the quarter ending in March rose 3% on an organic basis, but purchases by Chinese shoppers globally grew 10%.
Last year, Louis Vuitton's men's line, helmed by Pharell Williams, staged a large-scale show in Hong Kong.



Kering Appoints Demna as Artistic Director of Gucci

A Gucci shop is seen at the Jiangbei international airport in southwestern China's Chongqing on March 6, 2025. (AFP)
A Gucci shop is seen at the Jiangbei international airport in southwestern China's Chongqing on March 6, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Kering Appoints Demna as Artistic Director of Gucci

A Gucci shop is seen at the Jiangbei international airport in southwestern China's Chongqing on March 6, 2025. (AFP)
A Gucci shop is seen at the Jiangbei international airport in southwestern China's Chongqing on March 6, 2025. (AFP)

Italian luxury brand Gucci has appointed Demna as its artistic director, owner Kering said on Thursday, in a much-awaited move to revitalize the struggling label.

The appointment comes after Gucci - once one of the industry's biggest success stories - has suffered a prolonged sales decline, with revenues down 24% in the fourth quarter of 2024. The label's former design chief Sabato De Sarno left in February.

Georgian fashion designer Demna has been the artistic director of Kering's Balenciaga since 2015, and will take up his new role in July, Kering said.

The designer faced criticism in 2022 over a controversial Balenciaga ad campaign with images involving children, which he later said was the "wrong artistic choice".

In a statement, François-Henri Pinault, Kering CEO and chairman, said: "His creative power is exactly what Gucci needs."

Analysts have been impatient for the company to fill the role, with Luca Solca of Bernstein saying that Gucci, which generates nearly half of group sales and two-thirds of operating profit, needed a "heavyweight" chief designer to regain much-needed momentum.