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Luxury Group Richemont Makes Van Cleef Jewellery Boss New CEO

The logo of the luxury goods company Richemont is pictured at its headquarters in Bellevue near Geneva, Switzerland, June 2, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Purchase Licensing Rights
The logo of the luxury goods company Richemont is pictured at its headquarters in Bellevue near Geneva, Switzerland, June 2, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Purchase Licensing Rights
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Luxury Group Richemont Makes Van Cleef Jewellery Boss New CEO

The logo of the luxury goods company Richemont is pictured at its headquarters in Bellevue near Geneva, Switzerland, June 2, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Purchase Licensing Rights
The logo of the luxury goods company Richemont is pictured at its headquarters in Bellevue near Geneva, Switzerland, June 2, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse Purchase Licensing Rights

Luxury group Cartier-owner Richemont announced a rejig of its top management on Friday, promoting the head of its Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery brand to group chief executive, saying it was returning to a more traditional management set-up.

Nicolas Bos, who has led a sales surge at Van Cleef, will take over from Jerome Lambert, who will stay on at Richemont as Chief Operating Officer.

The Swiss-listed company made the announcement as it reported a smaller than expected fall in fourth quarter sales. It shares rose 6% on the Zurich exchange.

Chairman Johann Rupert said that the company was reinstating the traditional CEO role, folding the jewellery brands into the rest of the role's responsibilities, which also covers high-end Swiss watches, fashion and accessories, Reuters reported.

He noted it was important to be led by an executive from the "client-facing side”.

"If you’re going to run Richemont you’d better understand the consumer" Rupert told analysts, who were enthusiastic about the promotion.

"Nicolas has developed Van Cleef & Arpels into a power house, and, in our view, is entirely credible as the future leader of the Group," said Bernstein analyst Luca Solca.

The announcement came as Richemont, whose Swiss watch brands include Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre, said sales fell 1% to 4.80 billion euros ($5.21 billion) in the three months to the end of March.

In constant currencies, sales rose 2%,which was a slowdown from the 8% rate in the previous quarter but was slightly ahead of a consensus forecast for 4.78 billion euros cited by RBC.

The performance confirmed a downward trend in the luxury sector which has been buffeted by tepid Chinese demand and comparisons with last year, when the lifting of COVID-19 curbs in China supercharged sales.

Globally, customers have also become more selective about expensive purchases as the costs of living rises.

"Overall a decent set of numbers and final quarter constant currency growth is reassuring given the souring sentiment among luxury goods buyers and a difficult comparable," said Jon Cox at Kepler Cheuvreux.

However, weakness in the Asia Pacific in the final quarter, down 12%, is worrying, he added noting that unless the China consumer comes back, demand for luxury goods is going to be more muted for the industry than otherwise expected.

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Fashion

80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
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80-year-old LL Bean Staple Finds New Audience as Trendy Bag

Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Gracie Wiener poses with some of her tote bags in Washington Square Park in New York, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

L.L. Bean created it 80 years ago to haul heavy blocks of ice. Now it's a must-have summer fashion accessory, The Associated Press reported.

The simple, sturdy canvas bag called the Boat and Tote is having an extended moment 80 years after its introduction, thanks to a social media trend in which they're monogrammed with ironic or flashy phrases.

New Yorker Gracie Wiener helped get it started by ordering her humble bags from L.L. Bean monogrammed with “Psycho” and then “Prada,” the pricey Italian luxury brand, instead of just her name or initials, and posting about them on Instagram. Then others began showcasing their own unique bags on TikTok.

Soon, it wasn’t enough to have a bag monogrammed with “Schlepper,” “HOT MESS,” “slayyyy” or “cool mom.” Customers began testing the limits of the human censors in L.L. Bean’s monogram department, which bans profanity “or other objectionable words or phrases,” with more provocative wording like “Bite me,” “Dum Blonde” and “Ambitchous.”

Social media fueled the surge, just as it did for Stanley’s tumblers and Trader Joe’s $2.99 canvas bags, which were once selling on eBay for $200, said Beth Goldstein, an analyst at Circana, which tracks consumer spending and trends.
The tote’s revival came at a time when price-conscious consumers were forgoing expensive handbags, sales of which have weakened, and L.L. Bean’s bag fit the bill as a functional item that’s trendy precisely because it’s not trendy, she said. L.L. Bean's regular bags top out at about $55, though some fancier versions cost upward of $100.
“There’s a trend toward the utilitarian, the simple things and more accessible price points,” she said, and the customization added to the appeal: “Status items don’t have to be designer price points.”

L.L. Bean’s tote was first advertised in a catalog as Bean’s Ice Carrier in 1944 during World War II, when ice chests were common. Then they disappeared before being reintroduced in 1965 as the Boat and Tote.

These days, they’re still made in Maine and are still capable of hauling 500 pounds of ice, but they are far more likely to carry laptops, headphones, groceries, books, beach gear, travel essentials and other common items.

Those snarky, pop-oriented phrases transformed them into a sassy essential and helped them spread beyond Maine, Massachusetts’ Cape Cod and other New England enclaves to places like Los Angeles and New York City, where fashionistas like Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker are toting them — but not necessarily brandished with ironic phrases.

“It’s just one of those things that makes people smile and makes people laugh, and it’s unexpected,” said Wiener, who got it all started with her @ironicboatandtote Instagram page, which she started as a fun side hustle from her job as social media manager for Air Mail, a digital publication launched by former Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter.

The folks at L.L. Bean were both stunned and pleased by the continuing growth. For the past two years, the Boat and Tote has been L.L. Bean’s No. 1 contributor to luring in new customers, and sales grew 64% from fiscal years 2021 to 2023, spokesperson Amanda Hannah said.

The surge in popularity is reminiscent of L.L. Bean’s traditional hunting shoe, the iconic staple for trudging through rain and muck, which enjoyed its own moment a few years back, driven by college students.