Well, once again… we here at FASHIONPHILE are looking out for you and feeling your pain. Louis Vuitton’s raising their prices again tomorrow- April 17.

Price Increases stink, but LVMH bean counters are smart to defend against the weak dollar. And it’s paying off to the tune of billions of dollars in profits.

Still. We don’t like it any more than you do. So we’re having another one of our “Price Increase” sales. Any purchase made on our www.fashionphile.com site OR our weekly auctions for one week will get standard shipping absolutely free***! Starting tomorrow, Thursday April 17 through Thursday, April 24, all US buyers will get free shipping if you use coupon code “freeship4u”!

** Sorry, offer only good in the US of A. If you are one of our International buyers- let us know if you buy something during this period, and we’ll see if we can do something for you too…

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(Yves Carcelle, LVMH Chairman & CEO)

While the dollar flounders, house values plummet and folks from the very top are no longer only whispering rumors of a US recession… Louis Vuitton again posts huge gains in first quarter sales.

LVMH reported 5.3% gain first quarter. They saw growth in every catagory but wines and spirits (folks must be resorting to cheap liquor to drink away their economic woes). Watches & Jewelry rose 11.6% with $332.9 million in revenue.

But, my personal favorite- the fashion and leather goods group reported the highest revenue. With all the price increases we’ve seen in the last year, I am not suprised. Fashion and leather goods rose 7.1% to $2.3 billion.

Interesting quote:

“But it’s not as if the economy hasn’t affected LVMH altogether. If the euro wasn’t so strong compared with other currencies — particularly the dollar — revenue would be much higher. There’s little doubt the brands have lost some aspirational customers — those who buy small items like Louis Vuitton keychains, or J’Adore Dior perfume. The company plans to combat this by continuing to expanding in emerging markets, particularly China and Russia.”

Read the article from Forbes…
From FoxBusiness…
From Marketwatch…
From Bloomberg…
From Reuters… 

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(Benoit Louis Vuitton)

OK, stop staring. Yes, he’s a hottie. Let me introduce you to Benoit Louis Vuitton, the great-great-great Grandson of the Louis Vuitton.

(Left: Right: Photo by Jake Chessum NYTimes)

Apparently he’s not just a pretty face. (Although his is a great face isn’t it?- and he’s 6′2″ tall to boot!) Anyway, his father is Patrick Louis Vuitton (looks like they all get the middle name “Louis”), who is in charge of Louis Vuitton Special Orders Division. Benoit apparently spent the first seven years of his life “sheltered in Asnieres”- home of the first Louis Vuitton workshop.

After fighting the idea of working for the family business for years- he’s now in charge of the Special Order Watch division.

(Photo:  Style.com)

He’s And he’s single, ladies. (Sorry, my gay friends- it looks like this player in the fashion world is straight.) Here’s what he’s looking for in a woman (you can read the rest of the article in an old New York Times article):

”I want someone who is independent, smart and strong… But I love beautiful women, and I’m not going to lie to you and say that I want an ugly woman. I say this partly as a joke, but it’s also true: I know that I represent something and that my wife will have to represent something, so she will have to look good in Louis Vuitton.”

(Photo: Asia-Benefit.com)

“She will have to look good in Louis Vuitton.”  Well, I’m a happily married woman- but to all my single readers out there- that sounds like a challenge to me!

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No… not us! As our name implies… we here at FASHIONPHILE love fashion . But we also have embraced our inner-techno-nerd!

Apparently, a bunch of top Fashion designers & industry execs- including Karl Lagerfeld, LVMH CEO Yves Carcelle, Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere, Miucca Prada and even our own Marc Jacobs, don’t frequent the “internets” much. In fact, some don’t use a computer at all, they have assistants syncing their I-Pods, have their email printed out for them and respond with hand written notes. Check out the interesting article from NY Magazine!

Marc’s been getting with the program and has apparently even found a “relationship” online! For entertainment, he’s even recently been commenting on blogs that reference him!

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Yes, why not? I mean, after all- we’re the ones paying the always reliable price increases. So basically, I’m personally taking some credit for the 8%, or $3 Billion (yep- 9 zeros!) profit last year.

Don’t have time to read the article from Bloomberg? Here are the “cliffsnotes”:

1. profit rose 8 percent last year
2. LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault forecasts a “tangible increase” in results this year
3. “Spending on luxury goods will double to 300 billion euros in five years”

Fascinating quote:

“Never Full bags, which cost up to $655 and can be turned inside-out, helped to stimulate sales in Japan, the source of about 15 percent of revenue. They contributed to an 8 percent gain in sales to 5.63 billion at LVMH’s fashion and leather- goods division, its main unit, after sluggish Japanese demand weighed on sales across the industry last year.”

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