If you want to see Jay Leno’s home in Newport, RI all you have to do is leave my office, turn on to Bellevue Avenue and head out to Ocean Drive, and you’ll see it right there on the water. “Leno and his wife first admired the house around 30 years ago, when he was in Rhode Island for a standup gig,” explains Fred Albert in Newport Life. “In 2017, the couple drove by it again — only this time, they stopped. ‘Let’s see if it’s for sale,’ Leno said, taking advantage of a departing gardener to slip through the open gate and drive up to the front door, where a caretaker greeted him.” Albert … [Read more...]
Chinese Millennials Spend Big on Luxury, but Americans Are too Poor to Keep Up
Luxury goods companies have found steady demand from young Chinese consumers, flush with cash and ready to spend. Meanwhile, American Millennials can't keep up with their Chinese counterparts for a variety of reasons. Carol Ryan explains at The Wall Street Journal: Luxury brands have done a great job of attracting young Chinese shoppers. Cash-strapped U.S. millennials will be a tougher sell. Chinese spending on Gucci handbags, Burberry trench coats and the like has been surprisingly resilient despite the country’s weakening economy. That has buoyed the stock-market valuations of listed … [Read more...]
LVMH Expands its Reach in Hospitality
Luxury conglomerate LVMH has expanded its hospitality business by beating numerous other bidders to acquire the high-end hotel owner and operator Belmond Ltd. Craig Karmin reports in MarketWatch: The deal is the latest sign that luxury travel is booming after an extended downturn, when many leisure travelers and businesses shunned paying up for high-end accommodations. The hospitality company has full or partial stakes in virtually all of its 36 hotels, making it one of the last hotel operators to own most of the properties its manages. The hotels include Cipriani in Venice, the Grand … [Read more...]
Yay, Yay Claude Monet
Yesterday Claude Monet’s famed 1890 painting, “Haystacks”, sold for $110 million—a record for the impressionist— “to an unidentified woman who had to raise her paddle aloft to be spotted from the second-to-last row of Sotheby’s in New York,” writes Kelly Crow in The WSJ. To Your Survival Guy’s trained eye (ha!), I like the yellow and pink, and not to be rude, but the whole thing’s a little blurry. Just saying. As I was walking the grounds of his beautiful home and gardens in Giverny, France, it’s easy to feel as if one could find the inspiration to paint something as exquisite. But $110 … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy in Paris: Peking Duck
When you land in Charles de Gaulle airport, taxiing to the gate can feel longer than the flight. It’s big. And if it’s not a long taxi, it means you might be closer to home than the gate. That was us on this trip. And unfortunately, before deplaning we had to wait until the wheelchairs were available. My daughter Izzy recently had ankle surgery from a cross country running injury, and much to her despair (“Dad it’s embarrassing”) we were on the wheelchair list. We were joined by all the other crips including an overweight gentleman crutching forward with a duty-free bag of smokes, … [Read more...]
The Small Italian Town Feeding the World’s Luxury Feast
The rise of affluence in Asia has brought on a wave of demand for luxury goods. Feeding that wave is a small town outside of Florence, bustling with activity to create "Made in Italy," luxury goods. Matthew Dalton reports for The Wall Street Journal: SCANDICCI, Italy—This district of drab industrial buildings outside Florence is getting crowded as high-end fashion houses jostle for an edge in one of the industry’s most important products: the expensive leather handbag. Luxury giants from Prada to Burberry are snapping up workshops, expanding their own factories and building new ones around … [Read more...]
LVMH: One of My Favorite Companies in the World
Next week I am heading to Paris to spend two weeks visiting LVMH retail locations in Paris, and each of the Palace Hotels, as well as the vineyards of Burgundy. In the case of LVMH, the company controls one of the world’s best portfolios of luxury clothing, Champagne and liquors. It is virtually unrivaled. The very best just never goes out of style. Reports the Wall Street Journal: Investors seem to be looking for any excuse to sell luxury stocks just now. This week it was slightly underwhelming third-quarter sales numbers from luxury conglomerate LVMH LVMUY -9.07% Moët Hennessy … [Read more...]
Glamping is Big Business
As summer kicks into high gear, consider hitting the road for your next vacation. I wrote this piece about "glamping," back on December 4, 2017, but it can still inspire you today. Glamping is a big business as pointed out here by Spencer Jakab of the WSJ: For anyone who has gotten stuck on a mountain road behind a massive recreational vehicle, get used to it, there are a lot more on the highway. Recreational vehicles, ranging from bus-sized motor homes to retro trailers, have been a boom-and-bust industry since they first became popular in the early 1970s. Now a wave of retiring baby … [Read more...]
LVMH Organic Revenues up 12%
Led by its Fashion and Leather Goods and Perfumes & Cosmetics businesses, LVMH's organic revenues increased by 12% in the first nine months of 2017. According to the company's earnings release: The Fashion & Leather Goods business group recorded organic revenue growth of 14% for the first nine months of 2017. Louis Vuitton is still driven by its exceptional strength in the field of innovation, illustrated by its first smart watch and the many creations across all of its activities. The qualitative development of its distribution network continues, as illustrated by the opening of the … [Read more...]
Can Amazon Grow Up Enough for Luxury?
Luxury goods producers are slowly beginning to sell their wares on Amazon, but without firmer commitments form the e-commerce giant to fight counterfeits and deep discounting, some luxury manufacturers refuse to sign on. Matthew Dalton and Laura Stevens report: Amazon has won over some of the world’s biggest lifestyle companies by pledging action against unauthorized retailers and knockoffs. Earlier this year, Nike Inc. agreed to make some of its products available for sale directly from Amazon, in exchange for a promise of limited policing. But Amazon typically only does that for the biggest … [Read more...]