You Can Smell like your LV Handbag Now!
You Can Smell like your LV Handbag Now!
Who doesn’t want a classic Louis Vuitton handbag or the vintage space accessory-the LV trunk? Well, they’re getting us Louis Vuitton perfumes now. Want them, right?
The French fashion house, owned by the conglomerate LVMH is finally stepping into the perfume industry and focusing on how they smell with the release of its first fragrances in 70 years even though Vuitton has sold fragrances before: An attempt in the 1940s was discontinued and soon forgotten. But this time the trunk maker has developed the range itself, hiring a master perfumer and setting up a fragrance laboratory in France’s lavender-rich Provence region. The label will be stocking its 473 stores with perfumes in September, including at least one infused with a note of leather, in line with Louis Vuitton’s signature leather goods.
This might be the best time for the brand to plunge in the fragrance industry as the sales of US$ 3,000 handbags and US$ 20,000 watches experience stall. Also, economies like China are experiencing a slowdown in growth and fashion capitals like Paris are facing the threat of terror attacks, causing some analysts to predict this year to be the industry’s second-weakest since 2009.
MainFirst Bank AG analyst, John Guy estimates that the perfumes could add more than 450 million euros (US$ 496 million) of annual revenue in the next few years. Vuitton trunks, bags, clothes, shoes, jewellery and other items generated sales of 8.5 billion euros last year, according to Guy. LVMH perfume and cosmetic sales grew more than 600 million euros to 4.5 billion euros. The division accounts for about 13 per cent of LVMH’s business.
Promoting its exclusivity, the fashion house said through its website, “Since its founding year, the Maison Louis Vuitton has always been inspired by far flung destinations and driven to accompany voyagers wherever they travel.”