LVMH just acquired a 60% stake of Off-White™

The LVMH Group has reached an agreement with Off-White™ by acquiring a 60% majority stake in it. Virgil Abloh will remain the owner of the remaining 40% while the New Guards Group will remain in the role of operating partner and licensee while the role of Virgil Abloh will expand beyond the creative direction and the only Fashion division of the group, to include the launch of new brands and partnerships through all the various activities of LVMH that include 75 different brands including luxury wine and liquors, perfumes and cosmetics, watchmaking and jewellery, luxury retail but also activities such as the Belmond and Cheval Blanc hotels, the yachts of Royal Van Lent Shipyard and even the Milanese pastry shop Cova. 

Abloh has already proven to be much more than just a cross-sectoral designer: his recent collaborations have in fact included very different brands such as Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Evian, Ikea, Vitra and Braun, to name a few, and have been received with great success. It is natural that the LVMH group, known for its policy of cultivating its talents internally and then using them in the most strategic moments and sectors, has decided to enter into this agreement with the designer to enhance its commercial categories outside of fashion and bring the lucky "branding" of Abloh even beyond pure fashion or design. Bernard Arnault explained:

We look forward to supporting Virgil and the team both in driving the growth of Off-White and in working together with Virgil to bring his unique sensibility to a broader range of luxury categories. 

After overcoming the pandemic with positive results, LVMH group shares rose 28% in the first quarter of the year while data for the second quarter will be published at the end of this week. With the partnership, the group wants to take advantage of the momentum gained in recent months – also opening up to agreements with unconventional terms like this, as Michael Burke, CEO of Louis Vuitton, who had met Abloh at the time of his internship at Fendi, pointed out: 

It’s not like LVMH is playing a standard role, or Virgil is playing a standard scripted role. We’re both going into this knowing that we’re going to be inventing new business models as we go.