CARRY THE TORCH: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton helped the Olympic torch wind its way through Paris on Sunday and Monday, when it stopped at many of the French capital’s famous landmarks, as well as key sites owned by the luxury group.
LVMH is a premium partner of the Olympic Games, slated to run July 26 to Aug. 11, and the Paralympic Games, from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8. LVMH’s beauty retailer Sephora is also a partner of the Olympic Torch relay, which debuted in the southern French city of Marseille on May 8, and offered activations for the public on the relay route, as well as at group locations along the itinerary and at stops.
On Sunday at 12:55 p.m. CET, Thierry Henry, among soccer’s greats and the manager of France’s Olympic soccer team, became the first bearer of the Olympic torch in Paris. He took it out of a specially crafted Louis Vuitton trunk, which stood on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and was opened by two of the house’s artisans. The first torch kiss in the city, minutes later, marked the end of Henry’s run.
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LVMH hosted numerous other animations in the evening, starting at 8 p.m. CET, when Banda Paname, Compagnie Santo Giuliano and Phryges entertained with music and dance sets. An Olympic torch relay picked up again about an hour-and-a-half later, starting with an employee of La Samaritaine department store in front of the Cheval Blanc hotel. A Louis Vuitton employee then brought the flame to the brand’s nearby headquarters, where a torch kiss unfolded in front of the closed Vuitton trunk and after Chaumet’s chief executive officer Charles Leung carried the flame on the last leg of the night’s event.
On Monday morning, in the western edge of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne, members of the public and children from the Secours Populaire, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty in France, gathered in LVMH’s Jardin d’Acclimatation amusement park. There, they were entertained at ateliers linked to the house’s brands, such as Guerlain, with a bee school; La Grande Épicerie, and Make Up For Ever.
A convoy containing the flame arrived at 9:20 a.m. CET, which was followed by an official photograph of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo; president of the Olympic Committee Thomas Bach; LVMH chief Bernard Arnault; Paris Opera Ballet principal dancer Germain Louvet; LVMH’s head of communication, image, and environment Antoine Arnault, and Tony Estanguet, chief of the Olympics’ Organizing Committee. They stood before the monumental painting “Olympic Rings,” created by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, which hangs inside the foundation’s auditorium.
After the Vuitton torch trunk was open came a five-stage relay, primarily at the Fondation Louis Vuitton and including employees from the foundation, Vuitton, Sephora and the Jardin d’Acclimatation. That finished at 10:15 a.m., followed by LVMH’s other associated events a few hours later.
