Louis Vuitton unveiled its custom-made Olympic trunks that will contain the games’ official torches and medals on Wednesday evening, as LVMH media and image director Antoine Arnault mocked left-wing website Mediapart in a witty discourse.
Vuitton is the key brand within the giant luxury group LVMH, the creative partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – known colloquially as ‘JO2024’ – and a sponsor to the tune of an estimated €150 million.
Several LVMH brands are outfitting the games, from Berluti which will dress the entire French team at the opening ceremonies, to Chaumet, which created the 468 medals. Examples of the gold, silver and bronze medals – which combine reliefs of both the Acropolis and the Eiffel Tower beside an image of the goddess Athena Nike – were posed on the main trunk.
One of two torches was positioned in its grand trunks done in the classic Damier pattern inside Vuitton’s historic atelier in Asnières, a suburb north of Paris.
Vuitton had revealed the images of the trunks online Wednesday morning, the same day that Mediapart posted a story ‘JO2024: pour LVMH, l’important, c’est gagner’. Meaning: ‘For LVMH, What’s Important is Winning’.
After praising the games for unleashing a growing sense of optimism in Paris and France, Arnault remarked that “even Liberation had a very good article, which made me think something magical is happening.” That radical daily newspaper has been a frequent critic of his father, LVMH CEO and patron Bernard Arnault, currently estimated as the richest man on the planet.
“But I hadn’t counted on Mediapart, and I cannot help myself. Because there are truly one or two extraordinary elements,” said Arnault, as he melodramatically pulled a A4 sized printout of the story from his back pocket.
Waving a copy of the Mediapart article, in which the journalist lamented that Vuitton had only selected winning athletes as ambassadors in this summer’s games.
“It’s as if they think that we should connect with the last people in the race! What an absurdity!” he scoffed to much laughter inside the packed Art Deco salon in the former home of the Vuitton family.
Prior to Antoine, Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari welcomed guests, noting: “We are very proud of this project… and happy to be here in Asnières where it all began in 1854. It’s a symbolic space… and a symbol of our optimism.”
Before Tony Estanguet, a French triple Olympic canoe champion and president of this summer’s games, praised the quality of the French Olympic and Paralympic teams.
“We want to show what sport can bring to our country… even if there are other nationalities,” he said bringing a final round of laughter as he stood beside Beccari, an Italian.
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