is there money in luxury goods and fashion?

when i was in paris last weekend, the newsstands were selling the above magazine. i thought to myself "wow they kissed and made up?", and i realised it was a photoshopped pic. i wanted to get the magazine but there wasn't an english international edition.

two names we must know (L T R): bernault arnault of LVMH, françois pinault of PPR.

in the annual compilation of france's richest, astoundingly four of the top ten made their wealth from the luxury goods industry:


- no.2: bernard arnault, worth €14.58bn. he held top spot last year but dropped a place as shares in LVMH took a little tumble this year. LVMH has controlling stakes in louis vuitton, givenchy, dior, loewe, moet hennessy etc


- no.4: hermès family, worth €7.68bn. above: jean-louis duma-hermès and daughter sandrine. there are no signs of a slow down at hermès. they are opening a factory on the outskirts of paris to train more craftsmen, and they also bought a crocodile farm to rear their own to meet soaring demands. what credit crunch?


- no. 6: françois pinault, worth €4.95bn. above: françois pinault jr, salma hayek-pinault, françois pinault sr. PPR has controlling stakes in amongst others, puma and gucci group, which in turn controls gucci, bottega veneta, YSL, balenciaga, mcqueen, stella mccartney etc.


- no. 10: alain wertheimer & family, worth €3.5bn. not many knew that chanel is actually privately owned, and it's brothers alain and gerard wertheimer that controls it.

i love more than fashion.