This has been a busy 18 months for Alexandre Arnault! Since LVMH acquired the 185-year-old New York jeweler Tiffany last January, there have been a number of attention-grabbing, zeitgeist-capturing events. Whether it was Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s “About Love” campaign (set against Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 masterpiece “Equals Pi”), Tiffany’s Supreme partnership, or the launch of the Patek Philippe Tiffany blue Nautilus watch, which Leonardo DiCaprio and LeBron James have been seen wearing, Tiffany’s mission has been to keep itself prominent in pop culture and announce an exciting new era of agenda-setting inventions. The personal life of the brand’s executive vice president of product and communications has also been active. After tying the knot with Géraldine Guyot in Paris and Venice last year, the Carters, Pharrell Williams, and Kanye West attended the star-studded event.
Jewelry brands are traditional, advertising around Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s. Arnault and Tiffany’s CEO Anthony Ledru oppose this. The tech-savvy 30-year-old argues implementing a start-up-style communications approach is simple. Keeping consumers’ attention in the 21st century is crucial to a brand’s success. Arnault, the third eldest child of LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, adds, “We need to be present in many more events and places to stay relevant and present in our times.” Arnault has used this strategy before as CEO of Rimowa. He grew the luggage business exponentially and made it cool with Supreme and Off-Virgil White’s Abloh collaborations. “Being Tiffany, being American, and being the essence and perfection of modernity” all require innovation, he argues. Tiffany’s new approach includes brand-building. Tiffany will continue to make best-selling silver jewelry, like Elsa Peretti’s Open Heart pendant, but Arnault wants to highlight the company’s high-jewelry tradition. Beyoncé wore the 128-carat Tiffany Diamond, revealed in 1878, in last year’s ad campaign. “We wanted to remind people we had the best stones and craftsmanship,” he says.
Audrey Hepburn wore the identical yellow diamond in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, where she played Holly Golightly. Arnault intends to bring Tiffany’s richness and range of storytelling to London’s Saatchi Gallery. Vision & Virtuosity opens on June 10 and features early jewelry designs and Hubert de Givenchy’s black movie outfit. Arnault first realized the power of what he terms a “IRL” experience when he visited an earlier version of the exhibition in Shanghai in 2019, before he joined the firm. As a consumer, it was nice to grasp the brand’s history, he says. The exhibition will feature Tiffany’s vocabulary of designers, from Louis Comfort Tiffany’s art nouveau to Jean Schlumberger’s mid-century extravagance to Paloma Picasso’s 1980s modernity. The experience will incorporate technology. In the Tiffany Love chamber, visitors can contribute notes to an interactive display, and augmented reality will let them try on the Tiffany Diamond. Arnault wants guests to have a high-tech, immersive Tiffany experience.
For him, bringing the show to London is a way of giving Europe a taste of what it means to be a jeweler of the highest caliber and a jeweler of the finest gemstones. It’s clear, though, that the brand’s name awareness has already spread across the globe. “The beauty of Tiffany is that we are a brand that can be present everywhere,” Arnault explains. There are so many associations with us that it’s hard to imagine us in a different context. A Tiffany NFT, watch revival, or a new venture into a completely new industry are all possibilities for the Fifth Avenue jeweler in the future. Every eye is on you.
Reference:
Garrahan, Rachel. “‘Tiffany Is A Brand That Can Be Present Everywhere’: ALexandre Arnault on the Jeweller’s New Strategy.” British Vogue, 8 June 2022, https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/alexandre-arnault-interview-tiffany.
Image Courtesy:
- https://www.harmoniesmagazine.com/en/luxury/jewellery-en/tiffany-co-showcases-over-200-high-jewelry-designs-from-the-blue-book-collection-in-the-middle-east-for-the-first-time/
- https://wwd.com/accessories-news/jewelry/inside-tiffany-co-s-new-blue-book-collection-of-exceptional-high-jewelry-1234955051/
