Bernard Arnault is pressing ahead with two major developments on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, tightening his grip on one of the world’s most exclusive retail corridors.
Arnault’s luxury conglomerate, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, is planning a new Tiffany & Co. flagship store on the site of the old Luxe Hotel, which will be demolished, according to city filings reviewed by Bloomberg.
Just a block away, LVMH has submitted plans for a big new Louis Vuitton store and cultural campus designed by architect Frank Gehry – a pivot from the company’s original plan to build a hotel, which was rejected by voters in 2023. The new proposal would be the company’s largest project yet in the tony Los Angeles-area enclave.
LVMH is deepening its bet on Rodeo Drive as it contends with headwinds including higher US tariffs on European goods and what it described in July as softening demand in key markets such as China and Japan. Despite that weakness, Rodeo Drive still draws a steady flow of wealthy visitors from Asia, the Middle East and the Americas, offering a palm-tree-lined stage and selfie backdrop that few other shopping venues can match.
Rodeo Drive is in a league with shopping high streets such as Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and the Miami Design District, said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of Luxury Institute, a consulting firm. “There are some places and spaces that are iconic, and they are some of the most pleasant and desirable places to be.”
LVMH declined to comment for this article. Executives have previously named Rodeo Drive on a select list of places where it makes more sense to own than rent.
“You can mention Paris, London, New York and Fifth Avenue and probably Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and that’s about it,” Jean-Jacques Guiony, LVMH’s chief financial officer at the time, said on a 2023 earnings call.
The Paris-based company already has spent more than $900 million on 12 leased or owned boutiques on Rodeo Drive over the years. That includes a new three-floor Bvlgari boutique opening in October.
Its plans to invest more underscore the strength of high-end luxury in the Los Angeles area even as the regional economy struggles in the aftermath of the deadly wildfires in January, a downturn in Hollywood and US immigration raids backed up by a temporary military deployment.
LVMH bought the Luxe Hotel site for $200 million in 2021. Plans for the Tiffany project, the most recent version of which was filed Aug. 4 with the Beverly Hills planning commission, haven’t been publicly announced.
Designs filed with the city call for a three-story building on Rodeo Drive spanning 30,466 square feet (2,830 square meters), featuring a rooftop indoor-outdoor space for very important clients and a restaurant. The plans by architect Peter Marino are wending their way through the planning department. The plan is occurring as LVMH renovates its Tiffany stores, a process that’s about 30% complete, CFO Cecile Cabanis said in July.
The campus proposed for Louis Vuitton calls for about 100,000 square feet in two buildings connected by pedestrian bridges and an underground tunnel, according to an application with the planning commission. The development, which LVMH disclosed earlier this year, would include luxury retail, a cafe, restaurant, open-air terrace, exhibition space and a garden rooftop. If approved by the city, construction could start in 2026 and finish by 2029.
Pedraza likened the concept to a theme park, with LVMH “becoming more like Disney or Universal Studios than they are just purveyors of luxury goods.”
LVMH originally planned a Cheval Blanc hotel for the same corner of Rodeo Drive and South Santa Monica Boulevard, a proposal rejected by Beverly Hills voters after a contentious fight over zoning and public benefit.
This time, the company’s proposal doesn’t require changes in zoning rules. Darian Bojeaux, an attorney who led opposition to the hotel, said she doesn’t personally like what’s being proposed — but she isn’t campaigning against it either, saying it’s her understanding that the project complies with local codes.
For Beverly Hills City Councilmember John Mirisch, who also opposed the hotel plan, the earlier fight wasn’t over luxury itself but whether the development gave enough back to the community. While he hasn’t taken a position on the Louis Vuitton campus, Mirisch said the project could offer a civic benefit if it draws from LVMH’s art holdings.
“If they use that to feature the amazing LVMH world-class art collection and bring that to Beverly Hills, that would be a tremendous community benefit,” he said.
LVMH’s latest plans cap a buying spree on the street that began more than a decade ago, mirroring its approach in other global hot spots such as New York and Paris, where it paid $1 billion in 2023 for a retail property on the Champs-Elysees.
In 2012, LVMH paid $85 million for a site on Rodeo Drive now being developed into a Dior flagship opening later this year. Between 2018 and 2020, the company spent another $465 million to piece together four parcels for the planned Cheval Blanc hotel.
“There’s these hubs where people go and they have expectations of what stores are there — and if you’re not there, then the money flows to competitors,” said Justin Mateen, a tech and real estate investor who co-founded Tinder.
Mateen and his brother Tyler paid $211 million in 2024 for a building on the corner of Rodeo and Wilshire Boulevard they plan to rebrand as One Rodeo, a new deluxe retail venue.
Prime real estate on Rodeo Drive typically commands annual rents of between $960 and $1,200 a square foot, while store sales often top $10,000 per square foot, said Houman Mahboubi, a broker with CBRE Group Inc.
“That limited supply creates urgency for groups like LVMH to buy rather than lease,” said Mahboubi, who was involved in the sale of the Luxe Hotel site.
Beverly Hills trailed only New York in new luxury openings from July 2023 to July 2024, with Rodeo Drive accounting for more than 40% of all new luxury space in the Los Angeles market, according to a report from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
Strong demand illustrates the willingness of high-end brands to splurge on one of the areas that make up the “absolute core” of global glamor, said Jay Luchs, vice chairman at Newmark Group Inc. and a longtime broker on Rodeo Drive. It’s not just about securing space on the street, he said. It’s about appearing on the feeds of influencers who flock to Rodeo Drive.
“People that have hundreds of millions of followers on Instagram — those are very important in fashion and in influence in the world,” he said.
Chiara Baravalle is the new General Manager of Dsquared2.
Previously, Baravalle, who began her career in Silicon Valley after graduating from Stanford University, served as general manager at Elisabetta Franchi and as a management consultant at Bain & Company in the Fashion and Luxury division.
“We are thrilled to welcome Chiara to Dsquared2,” said the brand’s founders and creative directors Dean and Dan Caten. “Her strategic vision, operational expertise and hands-on leadership style make her an ideal partner to embark on the next chapter of the brand’s journey. 2026 marks the beginning of a new phase, focused on reactivating the brand and laying the foundations for sustainable growth. Chiara knows that brands are living systems, built on people, culture and clarity of purpose.”
Baravalle will be tasked with leading a strategic reset focused on strengthening the brand’s foundations, sharpening execution, and ensuring long-term growth. In particular, her goals will be to win over younger consumers and accelerate expansion in key markets.
“Dsquared2 is a bold and iconic brand that anticipated many of the product and marketing strategies that have since become industry standards. The dualism at the heart of Dsquared2- between Canadian utility and Italian tailoring, between pioneering spirit and irreverent sensuality, between two creative forces- feels more relevant than ever,” said Baravalle, commenting on her appointment.
“The AW26 fashion show was a powerful demonstration of Dean and Dan’s mastery of showmanship, while the product itself reflects their sartorial expertise. It is a pleasure to work with Dean and Dan, whose iconoclasm and sincerity set them apart in the industry, and whose life’s work it is an honour for us to carry into the future,” Baravalle said.
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Wales Bonner has launched its lookbook for Autumn Winter 2026, shot by Malick Bodian. Exploring the romance of harmony, Wales Bonner reimagines classic uniforms through a sensuous, poetic lens.
A look from ‘Morning Raga’ by Wales Bonner – Malick Bodian
Inspired by an elemental simplicity, Wales Bonner presents design classics including suits, polo silhouettes, top coats, and chore jackets, reimagined through the label’s signature European heritage meets Afro Atlantic lens, for its Autumn Winter 2026 collection ‘Morning Raga.’ Driven by the pursuit of harmony in modernist architectural traditions, both men’s and women’s looks feature nostalgic tailoring and a subtle blend of textures, from Italian wool and satin to leather and metal studs.
A poetic suit by Wales Bonner – Malick Bodian
“From early design ideals of purity to the bold vision of figures like Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi, the collection presents a wardrobe between the practical and the sensual,” the brand announced in a press release.
The almost liminal set was designed by Jabez Bartlett and looks were styled by Tom Guinness. Jonny Lu Studio’s art direction continued the dreamy atmosphere of the campaign as models cast by Rachel Chandler pose in contemplative stances.
Men’s and women’s looks from ‘Morning Raga’ – Malick Bodian
Grace Wales Bonner launched her eponymous label in 2014, following her graduation from Central Saint Martins in London, and she won the LVMH Young Designer Prize in 2016. Wales Bonner was named as Hermès’ creative director of menswear in October last year.
Sweden’s IKEA will more than double its investment in India to over 200 billion rupees ($2.20 billion) in the next five years as the furniture retailer plans to open more stores and increase sourcing locally, a top executive said on Monday.
IKEA logo is seen in this illustration taken, February 11, 2025 – REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
IKEA, which opened its first India store in 2018 in the southern city of Hyderabad, will begin accepting online orders in four other cities where it currently does not have a physical presence, including Chennai and Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu state.
“(India) is not a large IKEA country yet… But the belief in India is very strong that it will be one of our top markets,” said Patrik Antoni, CEO of IKEA India, in an interview with Reuters. The retailer’s India sales rose 6% to 18.61 billion rupees in the year ended August 2025, and Antoni said it plans to quadruple it, including by expanding store count to 30 from six.
The company plans to start online operations before opening a brick-and-mortar store in new cities- a first for IKEA globally- as young consumers shop online more to beat traffic, said Bhavana Jaiswal, country e-commerce integration manager. Its online sales account for over 30% of the total India sales. The retailer aims to raise the share to 40% of total sales.
IKEA will also double production for domestic stores and exports to 800 million euros ($930 million), said Antoni. The company’s move comes as global brands ramp up export production in India to cut costs, while consumer majors from shoemaker Asics to carmaker VinFast Auto also step up sourcing to meet domestic demand.
U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50% last year on some goods, forcing many industries to find new clients in other countries. Antoni, however, said it has not affected IKEA’s Indian suppliers much, as the brand, which has most of its stores in Europe, ships more to other markets.
Politics8 years ago