Pietro Beccari on turning culture into coin at Louis Vuitton, and having a second job

Louis Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari launched a new ‘retailtainment’ superstore in Seoul on Wednesday, one day after he was appointed to a second, brand new job.

 
Lisa of BlackPink, uber star Felix, and artist legend Takashi Murakami all showed up for the opening of the huge 54,000-square-foot store that marries historical narrative, café,  restaurant and remarkable works of art.
 
“I believe in retailtainment maybe because we just had a period in luxury where we all got fat and chunky and sales came spontaneously… We lacked innovation. Louis Vuitton is not a pure fashion brand. So, as market leader, we needed to do something to stimulate people to be curious,” explained Beccari, as he celebrated the six-story opening of the store, titled ‘LV The Place Seoul.’

Located in La Reserve, part of department store Shinsegae’s luxury complex, it features a paradigm busting exhibition ‘Louis Vuitton Visionary Journeys Seoul.’ 

Plus, its opening comes one day after the hyper-energetic Beccari was named CEO of LVMH’s fashion group, encompassing stellar and happening brands like Fendi, Pucci, Givenchy, and Jonathan Anderson.
 
Visionary Journeys is a sharp-eyed, expertly presented narrative history of Louis Vuitton, a brainy stroll through the brand’s history that begins with a curving tunnel named ‘Trunkscape’ featuring monogram trunks dating from the 1880s, 19th-century advertising, hat boxes, rare documentation- all showing the deep roots that inspired the brand’s contemporary designs. Like an elaborate multi drawer shoe from 1905 that seems almost to directly inspire a shoe box and sneaker in coated camouflage canvas from Pharrell Williams’ debut collection for Vuitton.

 
A series of six sections from origins and watches to personalisation and workshop tell the brand’s history with gusto. Blending archival pieces and objets d’art with superb iconic ideas from LV designers Marc Jacobs, Kim Jones, Virgil Abloh and, above all, Nicolas Ghesquière; where a rich selection of bags in monogram, Damier or Epi leather represent ideal expressions of the LV aesthetic.
 
“The Young generation consumer is becoming more sceptical. That’s why they want great story telling. They need to know the reason behind a brand. Of course, we cannot do this in every store in the world. But we can here,” expounded Beccari, noting that LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault is due to visit Korea in January when he can personally discover the new superstore.
 
Vuitton had already wowed with its concept store ‘The Louis’ in Shanghai, though this new space takes retailtainment to another level. The Louis has been luring 22,000 visitors a week to its version of Visionary Journeys, many of them becoming brand fresh clients.
 
Expect similar numbers to catch Louis Vuitton Visionary Journeys Seoul, which had 1,700 visitors on its first day soft opening.
 
“Korea is the one of Vuitton’s top five nationalities,” explained Beccari, which is why department store group Shinsegae believed so much in this project. Built inside a 1930 building, which previously housed 30 brands, and 15 restaurants, it is now 80% dominated by Vuitton. 

 
Though, there are also three LVMH labels- Celine, Loewe, and Loro Piana, coincidentally all of them part the fashion group which Beccari will oversee with his left hand.
 
LV The Place Seoul also boasts a new top floor restaurant named JP for Junghyun Park, the Korean-born chef of award-winning Atomix restaurant in New York. His menu includes soy-sauce marinated blue crab accompanied by a silky egg custard, offering a delicate umami profile reminiscent of refined coastal cuisine. There are bolder compositions-  lobster enhanced with Korean mustard or Hanwoo Tenderloin with beetroot and galbi sauce. 
 
“I thought if I ever come back to open in my own country it would be nice to do it with the market leader. And that is very much Louis Vuitton,” explained Park, at the VIP cocktail in his new rooftop restaurant. It’s an elegantly finished space in fine woods that bleeds out on to a rooftop with three fantastic works of sculpture. Huge forms by Anthony Gormley, Henry Moore, and Louis Bourgeois, from the private collection of the Chung family that owns Shinsegae. 
 
This new Seoul complex also has a café sourced by Maxime Frédèric, the pastry chef of Cheval Blanc in Paris, bringing to 19 the number of restaurants and cafés in Vuitton stores internationally. 
 
Its four floors of retail space contains what seems like the whole world of Vuitton. Pride of place in fashion going to a powerful range of looks from Ghesquière’s dramatic medieval futurist cruise collection presented this spring in the Palace of the Popes in Avignon. A look from which Lisa of BlackPink wore to the opening VIP drinks party. 

While the house’s recent focus on sport- ranging from creating the trunks for the Paris Olympic medals to debut sponsoring this year’s Formula One championship- is well referenced. Almost anything can get the LV makeover- skateboards, football tables, ping pong sets, monogram golf bags, or portable roulette tables. In a sense, LV is gambling on the luxury appetite of local consumers, though it felt like a very carefully calibrated risk, one that Beccari has a remarkable track record in winning.
 
Before joining Vuitton in January 2023, Beccari reinvented retailing during his five-year tenure as CEO of Dior. Gutting and enlightening Dior’s flagship on Avenue Montaigne to become the fashion world’s most acclaimed flagship, with café, restaurant, VIP salons, super suite and impressive Galerie Dior, a permanent 13-room exhibition of the brand’s history from The New Look to the present day.
 
“People are very interested in seeing the deep roots of a great brand like Dior. People leave the exhibition speaking well about the brand. That really counts. And then they go into the store right after to buy something,” Beccari chuckled.
 
“But if I learned anything from La Galerie Dior it’s that exhibitions have to move and evolve,” he added, noting that Dior space just opened a remarkable new display of Dior fashion from the private collection of the late Azzedine Alaïa.
 
However, Vuitton is almost twice as large as Dior, with annual revenues in excess of €20 billion, and remains the lynchpin of the whole LVMH empire, accounting for an estimated one quarter of group sales and some 40% of profits.

 
Observers and online commentary has been critical of many luxury brands ramping up the prices of key products in recent years, during the consumer boom at the end of Covid.

Asked about that, Beccari responded: “Yes, there have been price increases. But you need to remember, there has been significant inflation in our raw materials too. That spiral of inflation has been the main driver to me. Also the movement in the dollar means we have been forced to up prices in certain markets in order to avoid resales internationally. We have had to defend our profit and loss, that’s a key strategy,” he noted.
 
Looking ahead, Beccari is excited about two major openings, in 2027 on the Champs Élysées, where a whole city block is now one mammoth Vuitton trunk, hiding a massive construction site. And in 2028, on Rodeo Drive, where iconic architects Frank Gehry and Peter Marino will work in tandem. Though all the CEO will say is:  “Expect a few surprises.” 
 
A former professional footballer in his youth, Pietro sees sports as part of burnishing Vuitton as a cultural institution. 
 
“We like to be recognised as a cultural brand. And sport is part of modern culture. Young people love and practice sport. It’s a key part of their lives. And of Vuitton, back from when we created the case for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. Like we like to say, ‘victory travels in Louis Vuitton’,” he concluded.  

 
Vuitton arches have been hyper visible at F1 races all this racing season,  and the connection also has another useful side effect. LV can invite VICs into luxury boxes in grandstands, and even into race pits at tire changes. “Oddly enough, the race pit reminds me of an atelier, due to the meticulous care for detail,” he opined.
 
As for his new job, managing 10 other labels, he is fulsome in his praise for his veteran predecessor Sidney Toledano, who will move to become consigliere to Bernard Arnault.
 
“When I went to Dior, it was like Sidney giving me his Dior as he had been CEO. It was like a father giving his daughter to a new son-in-law. I will try to do my very best in this new scenery and challenge. Some brands I know very well like Fendi, where I was CEO. So, I will have to study and learn and try to provide input. Fortunately, Sidney has put great teams in place- CEOs and creative directors,” he underlined, rising to welcome a flurry of stars arriving at the opening.

LVMH does not break out the fashion group’s revenues, but they are believed to be in excess of €5 billion.
 
The busiest executive in fashion has just got even busier.