Even fashion giants Chanel and LVMH forced to economise

Source: Times Online

Chanel, one of the grandest French fashion names, is to lay off 200 Paris staff in an unmistakable sign that even the world's top luxury brands are feeling the pinch in the global recession.

Until recently, France's marques de grand luxe were claiming immunity from the slump. Demand for the high end was holding up, driven by the luxury appetites of the nouveaux riches of Russia, China and other emerging powers, they said.

The denial has faded over the past month as Russians and Asians have been noticeably absent over Christmas from the boutiques in the Paris golden triangle off the Champs Élysées and their equivalents in London and New York. Business in Japan has slumped.

A week ago Chanel, privately owned and secretive about its affairs, called off a glitzy art show as it was about to arrive in London from New York. Over the weekend trade unions reported that the fashion house was to lay off all of its 200 Paris staff who are on fixed-term or temporary contracts.

-----

In another sign of hard times, LVMH, the world's biggest luxury conglomerate, has cancelled a plan for a Louis Vuitton megastore in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Profits in the €170 billion (£165 billion) global luxury market are still expected to be substantial this year, but LVMH has lost 44 per cent of its share value in 2008. Richemont, a Swiss company that owns Cartier and Montblanc, has suffered a similar share fall. Experts are predicting a 4 per cent decline in sales in 2009.



Read more: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article5415674.ece

were going to buy all this stuff that Americans in a "downturn" could no longer afford. What happened to the wealty Russians, Chinese, Malaysians, Vietnamese and others in the New Global Economy who were doing so well? :shrug:

From the article...very interesting:

“The pursuit of exclusive trophies ... is finished,” he wrote in Le Figaro last week. “We will now return to reason, decency and discretion.”

Well, that won't pay the bills.

I noticed in the last edition the ads were way off for the luxury/Worth Avenue sellers. There were ads, but I would estimate only half of what would be the norm during the holiday season. Mags are soley dependent on ad sales. Subscriptions buy lunch...LOL.