See what the new Tiffany on 5th Avenue will look like – 04/24/2023 – Market

For nearly four years, Tiffany & Co.’s flagship store, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 57th Street, has been shrouded in scaffolding as it undergoes a complete renovation. In the days before the reopening, scheduled for April 28, a Tiffany executive vice president, Alexandre Arnault, and the company’s CEO, Anthony Ledru, monitored the final preparations while whispering to each other in French.

Storefronts gleamed with Tiffany pieces — bracelets with tiny hearts, Bone Cuff bracelets by Elsa Peretti and necklaces by Paloma Picasso. Digital screens around the room showed an animation of a diamond-encrusted bird flying over New York.

“We asked ourselves a lot of questions going into this,” said Ledru, 50. “Are we going to change the general tone? Respect tradition? We decided to do both.”

He gestured toward the digitized bird, noting that it was inspired by a design by famous Tiffany jeweler Jean Schlumberger.

“There’s that tension: modernity and legacy,” he said.

A lot has changed at Tiffany’s since the renovation began. Mostly company property. In 2021, after tough negotiations, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired Tiffany for around $16 billion. The sale was one of the biggest deals ever undertaken in the luxury world, as well as LVMH’s most significant American brand acquisition to date.

Indeed, the jewelery became the property of Bernard Arnault, the 74-year-old founder, former chairman and largest shareholder of LVMH, who recently dethroned Elon Musk as the richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Over three decades, he built a kingdom of more than 75 brands, including Dior, Celine, TAG Heuer, Bulgari, Fendi, Dom Pérignon and Sephora.

As construction workers worked on the ground floor last week, one of Arnault’s five children, Alexandre Arnault, 30, was standing near the site where Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting “Equals Pi” was to be installed. A shade of blue similar to Tiffany’s signature color, the paint featured prominently in the brand’s 2021 “About Love” ad campaign, starring Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

“When people walk in on Fifth Avenue, they’ll see Basquiat,” said Alexandre Arnault, who was dressed in a Dior suit and Loro Piana sneakers. “It’s an important part of the Tiffany brand now.”

Tall and thin, Arnault, responsible for much of Tiffany’s creative vision, was one of the architects of the “About Love” campaign. The Basquiat’s use sparked a bit of controversy when a former assistant to the artist insisted he didn’t intend to do any homage to the brand.

But that didn’t matter much from a marketing perspective: The name Tiffany had been in the news for days now, signaling that it no longer just belonged in the era when Holly Golightly (played by Audrey Hepburn) admired the windows of her flagship store in the 1960 film “Luxury Doll”. The new Tiffany, Tiffany LVMH, showed itself as a brand that could also be disruptive and viral.

Amidst speculation over which of the Arnault sons will succeed the LVMH founder, Alexandre has been tasked with overseeing the renovation of the Tiffany store, which the company calls the Landmark. Before moving to New York from Paris two years ago to delve into the project, he reinvigorated luggage company Rimowa, another LVMH brand, through collaborations with Virgil Abloh and Supreme.

Ledru, the CEO of Tiffany, who was born in the Brittany region and raised in Lille, France, is a luxury industry veteran who has worked for Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston and Cartier. When a drop of blood appeared on his chin that afternoon, the result of a cut shaving, a publicist ran for a napkin.

“This is not just another flagship,” said Ledru. “For us, Landmark is now the beacon of the brand.”

The reopening left the building’s facade untouched, and the Atlas statue’s clock remains above its entryway, but little else remains. The Landmark clearly represents LVMH’s desire to imprint its DNA on the company, which was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young.

Tiffany’s flagship store opened on Fifth Avenue in 1940. When the visceral renovation began in 2019, it moved to the former Niketown site next door. Landmark was designed by architect Peter Marino, and its ten floors are filled with works by artists such as Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince and Rashid Johnson. Attractive fixtures include a Daniel Boulud restaurant, the Blue Box Cafe, which serves a “Breakfast at Tiffany” meal, and an “Audrey Hepburn experience” room that features a replica of her black Givenchy dress from the film’s opening scene – the LVMH acquired Givenchy in 1988.

“People really identify with her when it comes to Tiffany,” Arnault said. “So we wanted to pay tribute to him.”

As they toured the building with the reporter, the two executives ascended an undulating, mirror-lined staircase inspired by Peretti’s designs. The third floor specializes in wedding and engagement rings, the fourth in gold and diamonds, the fifth in silver and the sixth in home accessories. The seventh floor includes a Patek Philippe department and jewelry workshop.

Ledru described the nuances involved in designing each floor, while Arnault detoured from the press tour, inspecting side rooms and snapping pictures with his phone.

Earlier, the two executives had held a more formal interview, sitting on a green sofa in a book-lined room. Conservative and low-key in its approach to public relations, LVMH has not disclosed the cost of building the Landmark. A publicist, who participated in the interview, said beforehand that questions about LVMH’s succession were barred. However, Arnault and Ledru answered some important questions.

At age 30, did Arnault feel any “warmth” to fulfill his mission for the family?

“Am I sweating?” he said. “No. Because I’m surrounded by the best professionals we could ever ask for.”

On the eve of Landmark’s opening, were they worried about the possibility of a recession?

“There are ups and downs, but the typical thing about America is that they come back strong,” Ledru said. “New York is much stronger now than it was last year and the year before. I don’t want to be overconfident, but we are happy to finally open our doors.”

After the two finished visiting the Landmark, they went to the terrace on the eighth floor of the building. They stood in the cool spring breeze as they enjoyed the view of Fifth Avenue.

“Not bad, huh?” said Ledru.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves