Nicolas Ghesquière is Launching His Own Fashion Brand
Having repeatedly brought up plans to do so in the past, it looks like Nicolas Ghesquière will finally be going through with launching his own fashion label thanks to the financial backing of LVMH. According to Fashion Network, the French luxury conglomerate headed by Bernard Arnault has agreed to finance Ghesquière’s eponymous brand as part of the contract that the designer had renewed with Louis Vuitton last year.
More details about Ghesquière's upcoming fashion house are expected to surface later this year, but it will reportedly be based in Paris like other LVMH-owned fashion brands, such as Dior and Givenchy.
The brand's development will be overseen by Arnault's daughter, Delphine Arnault, who is an ardent supporter of Ghesquière's work. She was also responsible for hiring the French designer as Louis Vuitton's Artistic Director of womenswear after his departure from Balenciaga.
LVMH seemingly has some big plans in store for 2019. Just two weeks ago, news broke out that Rihanna's very own fashion brand was in the works in partnership with the French powerhouse group.
Though the company hasn't released an official statement on it, it certainly has the funds to launch a new luxury fashion brand or two: on Tuesday, LVMH revealed that its annual results for 2018 had surpassed forecasts, with its fashion and leather goods division seeing a 17% jump in forth-quarter sales. (Rihanna's makeup line, Fenty Beauty, was also specially mentioned for its "exceptional growth", having raked in nearly 500 million Euros in the past year.)
In the coming year, LVMH will also see if the many internal changes to its fashion brands — Virgil Abloh's recruitment as head of menswear at Louis Vuitton, Kim Jones' move to Dior Homme and Hedi Slimane's controversial appointment at Celine, to name a few — prove fruitful to its business.
