奢侈品帝国穿羊绒外套的狼正在改变

High above the luxury shopping utopia that is the Avenue Montaigne in Paris, Bernard Arnault, the 65-year old chairman and chief executive of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, was sitting in a wood-paneled conference room and smiling. Really smiling: eyes crinkled, teeth agleam. You might even say he was grinning.

路威酩轩集团(LVMH)的主席、首席执行官贝尔纳·阿尔诺(Bernard Arnault)微笑着坐在蒙田大道这个奢侈购物乌托邦高层的镶木会议室里。65岁的他真的在微笑：我能看到他眼角的皱纹和闪亮的牙齿。你甚至可以说他在咧嘴笑。

It was slightly disconcerting. Mr. Arnault’s face is known all over Europe, but its expression is normally one of poker-faced impassivity, eyes dark under heavy gray brows. At an imposing 6-foot-1, and always clad impeccably in a dark suit, he is as mythical — and as feared and admired — as Steve Jobs was in the United States. For years, Mr. Arnault was referred to as “the wolf in the cashmere coat.”

这有点令人不安。阿尔诺的面孔在欧洲家喻户晓，但他通常面无表情，黑色的眼睛隐藏在深灰色的眉毛下面。他身高6.1英尺，仪表堂堂，总是穿着无可挑剔的黑色西服，他神秘、令人敬畏，就像史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)在美国给人的感觉。多年来，人们把阿尔诺称为“穿着羊绒外套的狼”。

The first of the luxury titans, he built LVMH into the largest luxury conglomerate in the world, owner of more than 60 brands including Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Fendi and Bulgari. Along the way, he became the richest man in France, with a net worth of $29.5 billion, according to Forbes. A confidant of the powerful, he was a witness at Nicolas Sarkozy’s wedding to Carla Bruni in 2008 and was made an honorary Knight of the British Empire. And yet, on a sunny afternoon in July, he was looking less like a calculating globe-trotting billionaire than a child in thrall to a wonderful new toy. Which he kind of was.

他是最早的奢侈品巨头之一，把路威酩轩打造成世界上最大的奢侈品企业集团，拥有60多个品牌，包括路易威登(Louis Vuitton)、马克·雅可布(Marc Jacobs)、纪梵希(Givenchy)、芬迪(Fendi)和宝格丽(Bulgari)等。据《福布斯》(Forbes)说，他因此成为法国最富有的人，净资产达295亿美元。他是权势人物的密友，2008年见证了尼古拉·萨科齐(Nicolas Sarkozy)和卡拉·布吕尼(Carla Bruni)婚礼，还曾获得大英帝国荣誉爵士勋章。但是，在7月份一个阳光灿烂的下午，他看起来不太像深谋远虑、周游世界的亿万富翁，而更像个被绝妙新玩具迷住的孩子。他或多或少曾是这样的孩子。

The toy is a contemporary art museum and performance space: the Fondation Louis Vuitton, a sinuous, 126,000-square-foot glass and steel structure designed by Frank Gehry and tucked away in the Bois de Boulogne of Paris. Mr. Arnault has spent the last decade making the FLV a reality — it opens to the public this month — at a reported cost of more than $135 million.

这个玩具是一个当代艺术博物馆和表演空间：路易威登基金会(Fondation Louis Vuitton)。这个弯曲的、12.6万平方英尺的玻璃钢结构建筑是弗兰克·盖里(Frank Gehry)设计的，隐藏在巴黎的布洛涅森林公园(Bois de Boulogne)。阿尔诺花了十年时间才使路易威登基金会成为现实，据说花了1.35多亿美元。该基金会本月开始向公众开放。

In his private conference room, however, surrounded by works of Andy Warhol and Picasso, Mr. Arnault was reluctant to tally the costs. “We don’t speak of numbers when we speak of a dream,” he said, gazing down at some photographs of the museum. “Let’s just say it is a very expensive sculpture.”

但是，在阿尔诺的私人会议室里——四周是安迪·沃霍尔(Andy Warhol)和毕加索(Picasso)的作品——他不愿透露基金会的成本。“我们谈论梦想的时候不谈金钱，”他一边说一边低头凝视该博物馆的一些照片，“我们就称它为一个非常昂贵的雕塑吧。”

But, of course, it is more than that. Built to house the contemporary art collection of LVMH (including works by Jeff Koons and Gilbert & George) as well as pieces from Mr. Arnault’s personal collection, the FLV may be the most ambitious, and potentially controversial, new structure in Paris since I. M. Pei’s pyramid landed in the Louvre in 1989. And because the new museum sits on land that belongs to a public park, in 55 years it reverts to the city.

不过它的价值当然不只如此。修建路易威登基金会是为了存放路威酩轩集团的当代艺术收藏品（包括杰夫·昆斯[Jeff Koons]和吉尔伯特&乔治[Gilbert & George]的作品）以及阿尔诺的一些私人藏品。它可能是继1989年贝律铭的卢浮宫金字塔之后巴黎最有野心、最具争议的新建筑。由于这个新博物馆所在的土地属于一个公园，55年后它将归还给这座城市。

It is, in other words, a very expensive gift. One that, like so many gifts, has implications for the recipients as well as the company that gave it.

换句话说，它是一个非常昂贵的礼物。和很多礼物一样，对赠予者和受赠者来说都有深刻意义。

“I hope that it will make the group more understood, to show its extraordinary values to the public,” Mr. Arnault said.

“我希望它能向公众展示集团的非凡价值，让他们更理解我们，”阿尔诺说。

The museum gives physical shape to the sentiments often voiced by LVMH executives: that the company is a place of creativity and a preserver of heritage. As such, it is the crowning expression of an LVMH effort to shift the conversation around the business group away from that of a predatory, bottom-line-oriented conglomerate toward something more benevolent. It began with an initiative called Open Days in 2011, in which 25 brands as varied as Dior and Dom Pérignon threw open their normally closed ateliers to the public. In 2013, the company began to sponsor the LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize, the largest award to a new designer, and this year LVMH created a series of degree programs and paid internships in conjunction with professional schools aimed at creating a new generation of craftspeople.

这个博物馆的外形传递出路威酩轩集团的管理者们经常表达的感受：这家公司是创新之地，也是传统的保护者。因此，它集中体现出路威酩轩集团努力想改变公众对它的看法——不是掠夺成性、一味追求利润的企业集团，而是一个更慈善的机构。它始于2011年的一个名为开放日(Open Days)的活动——迪奥(Dior)和唐培里侬(Dom Pérignon)等25个品牌把通常关闭的工作室向公众开放。2013年，该公司开始举办路威酩轩年轻时装设计师奖(LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize)，它是面向新设计师的最高奖项。今年，路威酩轩集团开设了一系列学位课程，并与职业学校联合提供带薪实习，旨在培养新一代手工艺人。

These projects reflect an evolution within the luxury industry itself, in which competition for consumers, acquisitions and talent is fierce. And the “character” of companies is increasingly important. In this context, said Will Hutchings, an executive director at Goldman Sachs, the museum is “very long-term thinking.”

这些项目反映出奢侈品行业本身的变化。由于对顾客和人才的竞争以及兼并更加激烈，公司的“品质”变得越来越重要。高盛投资公司(Goldman Sachs)的执行理事威尔·哈钦斯(Will Hutchings)说，放在这个大环境中看，修建这个博物馆是“是很有远见的做法”。

Jean-Paul Claverie, who has run LVMH’s philanthropic initiatives for more than two decades, said the FLV was aimed at producing “not economic returns but emotional ones.”

二十多年来负责路威酩轩集团慈善项目的让-保罗·克拉夫利(Jean-Paul Claverie)说，路易威登基金会追求的不是“经济回报，而是情感回报”。

Of course, the two are not entirely unrelated.

当然，这两者并不是完全没有关系。

Gaining ‘Nobility’

获得“尊贵感”

The luxury business is changing. As consumers have experienced what Bain & Company calls “logo fatigue,” growth for brands including Gucci, Prada and Vuitton has slowed. The conventional wisdom was that consumers cared about obvious aspirational signifiers like name and price; the new view is that they now care about the less apparent marks of connoisseurship: handwork and craft. “If the 20th century was about manufacturing,” said Michael Burke, the chief executive of Louis Vuitton, “the 21st century will be about intangibles” — concern for preservation, heritage, the environment.

奢侈品行业在变化。消费者经历了贝恩咨询公司(Bain & Company)所说的“标识疲倦”，因此古驰(Gucci)、普拉达(Prada)和路易威登等品牌的增长都放缓了。传统观念认为，消费者关注的是品牌和价格等明显的成功标志；现在人们发现，消费者关注的是不那么明显的鉴赏力标志：手工艺。“如果说20世纪是关于生产的，”路易威登的首席执行官迈克尔·伯克(Michael Burke)说，“那21世纪将是关于无形资产的”——对保护、遗产和环境的关注。

Mr. Hutchings said that “there was a period where it didn’t matter what you sold, as long as you were focused on China.” But in 2013, overall luxury sales in China grew by only 4 percent, according to Bain, versus 19 percent in 2012, largely because of a corruption crackdown instigated by the new administration in Beijing and retail saturation.

哈钦斯说，“有一段时间，你卖什么都无关紧要，只要你往中国卖就行。”但是贝恩咨询公司称，2013年中国的奢侈品总销量仅增长了4%，与2012年的19%相比降低了很多，主要是由于中国新任领导发起的反腐行动以及零售饱和。

“The sophisticated consumer became a bit disappointed in luxury as it strove for ubiquity,” said Claudia D’Arpizio, a Bain partner based in Milan.

“奢侈品在努力让自己无所不在，而高端消费者却开始对它有点失望，”克劳迪娅·达皮兹奥(Claudia D’Arpizio)说。她是贝恩咨询公司在米兰的一个合作者。

LVMH, for example, had 3,384 stores around the world across all of its brands at the end of 2013, up from 1,693 10 years ago.

例如，到2013年底，路威酩轩集团的所有品牌在全球有3384家店铺，比十年前的1693家店增加了很多。

“You can’t keep opening stores,” Mr. Hutchings said, “so you have to think about exactly how you are engaging with the consumer.” He added: “The new model is representing something a whole lot deeper and more meaningful to consumers.”

“你不可能一直开新店，”哈钦斯说，“你必须仔细想想如何与消费者建立联系。”他补充说：“新模式是向消费者展示一种更深刻、更有意义的东西。”

As a result, a new front has opened in the luxury wars, with the names stitched inside handbags now also chiseled on cultural institutions. In Italy alone, Tod’s, the Italian luxury group, is underwriting the restoration of the Colosseum for 25 million euros, or $31.7 million; LVMH’s Fendi is spending 2 million for restoration of the Trevi Fountain; Versace is helping to restore Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II; and Salvatore Ferragamo pitched in at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

结果，奢侈品大战有了新战线，缝在手袋里面的名字如今也被镌刻在文化机构上。单是在意大利，奢侈品集团Tod’s正斥资2500万欧元（约合3170万美元）修复罗马竞技场；路威酩轩集团旗下的芬迪公司正花费200万欧元修复许愿池；范思哲(Versace)正帮助修复米兰的埃马努埃莱二世拱廊(Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II)；萨瓦托·菲拉格慕(Salvatore Ferragamo)参与修复佛罗伦萨的乌菲兹美术馆(Uffizi Gallery)。

“Consumers buy luxury goods products as a way to ennoble themselves; luxury goods companies and brands can earn more ‘nobility’ by associating their names to art and masterpieces,” said Luca Solca, the head of luxury goods analysis at Exane BNP Paribas. “Adding nobility to brands is conducive to increasing their appeal.”

“消费者购买奢侈品是为了让自己显得高贵；奢侈品公司和品牌能通过把自己与艺术和杰作联系在一起而获得更多‘尊荣’，”巴黎银行的奢侈品分析主管卢卡·索尔卡(Luca Solca)说，“给品牌增加高贵感有助于增加吸引力。”

LVMH’s greatest rival, the former PPR, went so far as to rename itself as Kering (pronounced as “caring”) last year, to symbolize a transformation from business opportunist to committed company. It established the Kering Foundation for women, and embarked on a very public sustainability drive, posting an environmental “profit and loss statement” on its website.

去年，路威酩轩集团最大的对手，前巴黎春天集团(PPR)甚至更名为开云集团（Kering，它的发音接近“caring”[关心]），以表明自己从商业投机者转变为一个负责任的公司。它为女性设立了开云基金(Kering Foundation)，并且开始了非常公开的可持续性努力，在网站上发布环境“损益表”。

All of this halo-associating behavior is occurring as luxury has become more enticing as a sector. In the depths of the recession, the luxury market grew by 5 percent worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs, and is one of the few European industrial success stories of recent years. Not surprisingly, investors see potential returns, and have created additional competition for LVMH. Today, the company vies for brands and creative talent not just with peers like Kering and Richemont, but also with private equity firms like Yucaipa (which has stakes in Barneys and Zac Posen) and players from the Middle East and Asia. The Qatar Investment Authority owns Harrods as well as minority stakes in Tiffany and Porsche. And the Hong Kong-based Fung Group, through its private equity vehicle First Heritage Brands, owns Sonia Rykiel, Robert Clergerie and Delvaux.

所有这些与光环相联系的行为都是在奢侈品成为一个更诱人的行业后出现的。据高盛投资公司统计，在经济衰退的深渊中，奢侈品市场的全球增长率达5%，是近些年欧洲少有的繁荣行业之一。不出所料，投资者们看到了潜在的回报，给路威酩轩集团增加了额外的竞争。如今，该公司不仅要和开云集团、历峰集团(Richemont)等同辈争夺品牌和创意人才，还要和尤凯帕（Yucaipa，它持有巴尼斯百货公司[Barneys]和扎克·珀森[Zac Posen]的股份）等私募股权公司以及来自中东和亚洲的玩家们竞争。卡塔尔投资局(Qatar Investment Authority)除了拥有哈罗德百货公司(Harrods)，还持有蒂芙尼(Tiffany)和保时捷(Porsche)公司的少数股份。香港的冯氏集团通过其私募股权公司利标品牌控制索尼亚·里基尔(Sonia Rykiel)、罗伯特·克莱热里(Robert Clergerie)和德尔沃(Delvaux)。

Though few companies have the deep pockets of LVMH, which bought Bulgari in 2011 for $5.2 billion, it does not take much to buy the smaller, younger labels that provide buzz and interest — and potential design talent to take over bigger brands in the future. Hugh Devlin, a lawyer based in London who has negotiated a variety of sales to LVMH and Kering, said the average price for such a house is merely “in the seven figures.”

虽然没多少公司像路威酩轩集团这样财力雄厚——它在2011年以52亿美元买下了宝格丽——但是购买能引起轰动和兴趣的年轻小品牌或者聘请有潜力的设计人才在未来掌管更大的品牌不需要花很多钱。休·德夫林(Hugh Devlin)是伦敦的一位律师，曾参与路威酩轩集团和开云集团的一些收购谈判，他说这种年轻小品牌的平均价格只有“几百万”。

As LVMH and Kering — which owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands — strive to bolster sectors like watches and jewelry or to better balance their holdings across geographic markets, such smaller acquisitions are necessarily part of the strategy. But the question for a business being courted by several buyers is not so much “Can you afford us?” as “Who do we like best?” In that context, “linking to culture is a very powerful tool,” said Ms. D’Arpizio at Bain. “You are dealing largely with entrepreneurs who want their brand to survive them and last into the future, and culture is all about preserving that for the future.”

路威酩轩集团和开云集团——后者拥有古驰和伊夫·圣罗兰(Yves Saint Laurent)等品牌——努力支持手表和珠宝等分支，或者让资产更均衡地分布在世界各地，所以这样的小型收购必然是发展战略的一部分。但是被几个买家追求的公司不太考虑“你能给我们多少钱？”，而是“我们最喜欢谁？”贝恩咨询公司的达皮兹奥说，在那种情况下，“与文化相联系是个非常有用的方法”，“你主要是在跟一些想让自己的品牌长久存活下去的企业家打交道，而文化就是关于传承至未来的。”

Certainly, this is part of the LVMH pitch. Consider a story told by Mr. Arnault in July: “Steve Jobs once asked me for some advice about retail, but I said, ‘I am not sure at all we are in the same business.’ I don’t know if we will still use Apple products in 25 years, but I am sure we will still be drinking Dom Pérignon.”

当然，这是路威酩轩集团最擅长的一点。想想今年7月阿尔诺讲的一个故事：“史蒂夫·乔布斯曾让我提供一些关于零售的建议，我说，‘我不太确定我们是在同一个行业。’我不知道25年后我们是否还会使用苹果公司(Apple)的产品，但我确信我们还在喝唐培里侬香槟。”

Technology is predicated on change; luxury, however, is predicated on heritage and connection to tradition.

技术基于变化；而奢侈品基于传承以及与传统的联系。

And yet benign protectionism is not necessarily a concept generally associated with Mr. Arnault and the company he built. In fact, it’s more the opposite.

不过，人们不一定把善良的保护主义与阿尔诺和他建立的公司联系在一起。实际上，人们的看法大多与此相反。

Corporate-Raider Image

公司入侵者形象

To understand the conflicted attitude toward Mr. Arnault in the fashion world, you have to go back to 1984, when, after a sojourn in the United States, he returned to France and bought out of bankruptcy a textile company, Boussac, which owned a hidden jewel, Christian Dior. A few years later, acting on the theory that luxury brands — basically a bunch of family businesses — needed to become an industry to thrive in a globalized world, he saw opportunity in LVMH, then run by squabbling families. After a bruising corporate battle, he ended up not only winning the company but also a reputation as something of a barbarian at the gilded gates.

要理解时尚界对阿尔诺的矛盾态度，必须从1984年讲起，他在美国短暂停留后回到法国，买下濒临破产的纺织品公司布萨克(Boussac)，这家公司拥有一个隐藏的珍宝——克里斯蒂安·迪奥(Christian Dior)。几年后，他认为，在全球化的世界上，奢侈品牌要想兴旺必须成为产业，而当时的奢侈品牌基本上都是家族生意。基于这个理论，他在路威酩轩公司看到了机会，当时这家公司由几个争吵不休的家族经营。在激烈的公司斗争之后，他赢得了这家公司，也获得了豪门野蛮人的恶名。

“France has a complicated relationship to success,” said Mr. Burke, who has worked with Mr. Arnault since that time. “Just think about the fact the expression ‘to make money’ does not exist in France. You ‘gagner l’argent’; you win money — the implication being either you are taking it away from someone by beating them, or you didn’t deserve it. And in France, Bernard Arnault epitomizes making money.”

“法国人对成功的理解很复杂，”伯克说。他从那时起就和阿尔诺一起工作了。“你想想，法语不说‘赚钱’，只说‘赢钱’(gagner l’argent)——意思是除非你打败别人，把钱从他们手里拿走，否则你得不到钱。在法国，贝尔纳·阿尔诺成为赚钱的代表。”

The corporate-raider image has survived over the decades in part because Mr. Arnault never made much effort to retire it, and in part because those on the other side were strategic about promoting it. LVMH has been careful to keep many family owners who sold to it involved in its business, including Laudomia Pucci of Pucci and Pier Luigi Loro Piana of the Italian luxury textile brand Loro Piana. But the company is nevertheless widely perceived as swooping in when it senses weakness with a seductive offer to buy.

公司入侵者的形象伴随阿尔诺几十年，一方面是因为阿尔诺从未努力摆脱它，另一方面是因为他的对手们从战略上宣传它。路威酩轩集团一直注意让很多收购来的家族企业的所有者参与到经营中来，包括璞琪(Pucci)的劳德迷亚·璞琪( Laudomia Pucci)和意大利奢侈纺织品品牌洛罗·皮雅纳(Loro Piana)的皮耶尔·路易吉·洛罗·皮雅纳(Pier Luigi Loro Piana)。不过，当该公司看到一个公司的弱点，提出诱人的条件购买时，给人的普遍感觉是乘虚而入。

Add to this the fact that Mr. Arnault sees his role as ensuring the future of brands, but not necessarily the designers behind them — a crucial distinction. As a result, whenever he makes a controversial play for a company, the predator image becomes part of the fight.

除此之外，阿尔诺认为自己的责任是确保这些品牌拥有未来，而这些品牌背后的设计师他就不一定管了，这是一个重要区别。结果，只要他为了某个公司做出有争议的举动，他的捕食者形象就成了争斗的一部分。

This was nowhere more true than when LVMH quietly acquired 14 percent of the stock of Hermès International in October 2010 via previously undisclosed equity swaps, then increased its stake to 23 percent in the next few months. The move shocked the fashion world, which deemed Hermès the purest example of craft over commerce, and which immediately smelled a takeover attempt — denied by LVMH. The families that owned Hermès and its management quickly jumped on Mr. Arnault’s reputation. In 2011, Patrick Thomas, then the chief executive of Hermès, said of the stock purchase: “If you want to seduce a beautiful woman, you don’t start by raping her from behind.” As recently as last June, the new Hermès chief executive, Axel Dumas, labeled LVMH an “unwelcome shareholder.”

这一点最明显的表现是2010年10月，路威酩轩集团通过之前没有公布的股权互换悄悄获得了爱马仕国际公司(Hermès International)14%的股票，然后在接下来的几个月里把股权增长到23%。这一举动震惊了时尚界，他们认为爱马仕是工艺大于商业的典型例子，而且很快感受到路威酩轩集团的收购企图，虽然路威酩轩否认了这一点。掌控爱马仕的几个家族以及它的管理者们很快开始指责阿尔诺。2011年，爱马仕的首席执行官帕特里克·托马斯(Patrick Thomas)这样评价路威酩轩集团的股票购买行为：“如果你想诱惑一个美女，你不能先从后面强奸她。”去年6月，爱马仕的新任首席执行官阿克塞尔·杜马(Axel Dumas)称路威酩轩集团为“不受欢迎的股东”。

The ugly fight was settled in September, when a French court engineered a settlement under which Mr. Arnault agreed to distribute the LVMH-owned Hermès shares to his shareholders, retaining an 8.5 percent stake.

这场难看的争斗今年9月得以解决，在一个法国法院的主导下，阿尔诺同意和解，把路威酩轩集团持有的爱马仕股票分发给他的股东们，自己只保留8.5%的股权。

The Hermès ordeal alerted LVMH to the need to focus on the image of the company as a whole, said Antoine Arnault, Mr. Arnault’s oldest son, who, with his sister Delphine Arnault, is taking a prominent role in the company. Hermès, the younger Mr. Arnault said, “benefited from the opposite image, the perception that they are not financial at all, but have an artisans-in-their-garden thing.”

阿尔诺的长子安托万·阿尔诺(Antoine Arnault)说，爱马仕一事的严峻经历让路威酩轩集团意识到需要注意公司的整体形象。他和姐姐戴尔芬·阿尔诺(Delphine Arnault)在集团里扮演重要角色。安托万说，爱马仕“受益于相反的形象，人们认为他们一点都不关心金钱，但花园里有手工艺人”。

Even Bernard Arnault acknowledges that LVMH has not really tended to its corporate brand image. “We never communicated on the group, except for the financials,” he said. Marketing has been handled brand by brand, with the LVMH group presenting as a unit only during its quarterly financial reporting periods.

甚至连贝尔纳·阿尔诺也承认，路威酩轩集团没有真正注意自己的公司品牌形象。“我们从不以集团身份进行沟通，除了在财务方面，”他说。市场推广都是按品牌进行的，只有在提供季度财务报告时，集团才以一个整体出现。

He was somewhat reluctant to make the shift. “I am not a politician, and I am not trying to convince a crowd to vote for me,” he said. “I want to talk about our brands, not us or the group.”

他不太愿意做出改变。“我不是政治家，我不是在努力说服民众投票给我，”他说，“我想谈论的是我们的品牌，而不是我们或者这个集团。”

But whether he likes it or not, Mr. Arnault symbolizes the company he built as clearly as any logo. As Robert Burke, the founder of the luxury consulting firm Robert Burke Associates, said, today “groups are brands in themselves, and there is no staying behind the scenes.”

但是不管阿尔诺喜欢与否，和任何品牌标识一样，他代表着自己建立的公司。就像奢侈品咨询公司罗伯特·伯克联合公司(Robert Burke Associates)的创始人罗伯特·伯克说的，如今“集团本身就是品牌，不可能只待在幕后。”

New Image, New Generation

新形象，新一代

“The first Open Days were, to be honest, a reaction I had toward a sort of bad feeling and wrong image of the group and my father in the public eye,” said Antoine Arnault, speaking of the initiative to invite the public into the workshops of LVMH’s brands.

“坦白地说，第一次举办开放日活动是因为我想回应公众对集团和我父亲的反感和错误印象，”安托万·阿尔诺在谈到邀请公众参观该集团品牌工作室的活动时说。

“During the whole thing with Hermès, it started seriously annoying me, because what I saw every day in hundreds of meetings a year showed me the exact opposite,” he continued. “So I thought, ‘Why not open up and be transparent about who we are?’ ”

“在与爱马仕的整个事件中，这真的开始烦扰我，因为我每年参加上百次会议，我每天在这些会议上看到的是相反的情况，”他继续说道，“所以当时我想，‘为什么不透明一些，让公众看看我们的真实面貌?’

It is no coincidence that LVMH’s charm offensive coincided with the rise of the eldest of Bernard Arnault’s children — Antoine, now 37, and Delphine, 39, both from his first marriage — within LVMH. Antoine became chief executive of the men’s wear brand Berluti in 2010 after a stint as head of communications at Louis Vuitton; he is also chairman of Loro Piana. Delphine was named executive vice president of Louis Vuitton last year; previously she was deputy managing director at Christian Dior. Both serve on the LVMH board. Mr. Arnault also has three younger children from his current marriage; two of those children are interning at the company.

路威酩轩集团发起魅力攻势之时，正是贝尔纳·阿尔诺的一些年长的子女——37岁的安托万和39岁的戴尔芬，他们都是他第一次婚姻中的孩子——在集团中的地位不断上升之际，这不是巧合。安托万在短暂担任路易威登的沟通总监之后，2010年成为男装品牌伯尔鲁帝(Berluti)的首席执行官；他同时担任洛罗·皮雅纳的主席。戴尔芬去年被任命为路易威登的执行副总裁；之前她是迪奥(Christian Dior)的副总经理。两位都是路威酩轩集团的董事。阿尔诺目前的婚姻中有三个年龄较小的孩子；其中两个正在集团实习。

Tickets to the Open Days were free, but needed to be reserved online. In its first year, 2011, the 6,000 spaces for Louis Vuitton’s workshop in Asnières were spoken for within 90 seconds of release; those for the Christian Dior Couture atelier went in three minutes. From Paris to Poland, where Belvedere vodka is based, some 100,000 people attended the first open-atelier weekend. Last year, the total was 120,000, and a third weekend is planned for 2015.

开放日的门票是免费的，但是需要在网上预约。2011年第一次举办开放日活动时，路易威登阿涅尔工作室的6000个参观名额在发布后90秒内被约完；迪奥高级定制工作室的参观名额在三分钟内约满。在第一次开放日活动的周末，共有约十万人从巴黎赶往波兰参观雪树伏特加(Belvedere)的工厂，去年的参观人数达12万，第三次活动计划2015年举办。

While the Open Days exposed the buying public to the people actually creating branded luxury goods, the Young Fashion Designer’s Prize has a different audience. Bestowed on promising designers, the award includes 300,000 and a year of mentoring from an LVMH executive.

开放日活动是为了让买家们看到那些真正制作奢侈品的人，而年轻时装设计师奖面对的是另一批观众。该奖项授予那些有前途的设计师，包括30万欧元的奖金和路威酩轩集团执行官的一年指导。

Ms. Arnault is the force behind the prize, and the initiative has put her forward as a friendlier face of LVMH to a generation of potential employees. This year, 30 semifinalists from nine countries, including India, Nigeria and Ukraine, received an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris fashion week and a chance to exhibit their lines and meet with big names in fashion, including designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Nicolas Ghesquière, as well as the Arnaults.

戴尔芬是该奖项的幕后推手，对新一代潜在雇员来说，这一举动令她成为该集团更友善的面孔。今年，来自九个国家的30名入围设计师可以参加巴黎时装周，有机会展示自己的服装系列，与时装界的大人物会面，包括卡尔·拉格菲尔德(Karl Lagerfeld)、尼古拉斯·盖斯奇埃尔(Nicolas Ghesquière)和阿尔诺家族成员，一切费用由该集团承担。这九个国家包括印度、尼日利亚和乌克兰等。

The prize “changed a lot of perspectives about who they are, and how things are handled,” said Julie Gilhart, an independent consultant and member of the prize’s advisory board. “I think there may have been a hesitation about getting involved with LVMH before, but it has really broken down.”

独立顾问、该奖项咨询委员会成员朱莉·吉尔哈特(Julie Gilhart)说，这个奖项“改变了很多人们对这个集团的形象，以及他们的处事方式的看法”，“我觉得有些人本来可能不太愿意与路威酩轩集团发生关系，但偏见真的被打破了”。

The increased prominence of Antoine and Delphine Arnault has also helped promote an image of LVMH — despite being a huge public company with 29.1 billion in revenue — as a family affair.

安托万和戴尔芬·阿尔诺在集团中地位的逐步上升也有助于提高该集团的家族事业形象，尽管它是一个年收入291亿欧元的庞大公司。

Raf Simons, a designer who joined Christian Dior Couture, which is also controlled by Mr. Arnault, as artistic director in 2012, said he was attracted to the job in part because “it’s a family company” — one of the first times Mr. Arnault’s brands have been described in such cozy terms. Mr. Ghesquière, the relatively new artistic director of Louis Vuitton, has echoed the sentiment. Ms. Arnault was involved in the recruitment of both designers.

拉夫·西蒙斯(Raf Simons)2012年开始担任迪奥高级定制的艺术总监。他说自己喜欢这份工作的其中一个原因是“它是个家族公司”——这是阿尔诺的品牌首次被用如此温馨的词汇来描述。盖斯奇埃尔是路易威登的新艺术总监，他也表达出这种感受。戴尔芬参与了这两位设计师的招聘。

The new FLV museum and performance space, however, has the potential to reach a much broader group of people — one that goes beyond Europeans and designers. Given the importance of tourism to luxury spending in France, linking a must-see visitor destination with a luxury name has undeniably positive implications for LVMH brands.

新的路易威登基金会博物馆和表演空间面向的不只是欧洲人和设计师，而是更广阔的人群。考虑到旅游对法国奢侈品消费的重要性，把一个必看景点与该奢侈品集团联系在一起无疑对集团旗下的品牌具有正面暗示作用。

“It will show everyone who he really is,” Mr. Claverie said, suggesting that the FLV would reveal Mr. Arnault as someone who makes creativity happen, as opposed to a man who merely exploits and commoditizes it.

“它将向所有人展示他的真实一面，”克拉夫利说。他认为，路易威登基金会将表明，贝尔纳·阿尔诺是个让创意成为现实的人，而不是一味利用创意、把创意商品化的人。

Still, it is a mix of commercial and cultural imperatives that may sit uneasily with the French.

不过，它是商业和文化要素的混合物，法国人不一定会欣然接受。

“I told Mr. Arnault to be prepared for the fact that the French reaction, at least, will not be all positive,” Mr. Burke of Vuitton said. “I think we may get something along the lines of, ‘Who does he think he is to do this? It is not for business people to make these kinds of cultural statements!’ and so on.”

“我让阿尔诺准备好面对法国人的反应，他们的反应至少不会全是正面的，”路易威登的伯克说，“我觉得可能有人会说，‘他以为他是谁呀？商业人士不要来搞这种文化宣言！’等等。”

“At some point, though, France will adapt to it,” he continued. “Then they will accept it. And then they will love it.”

“不过，慢慢地，法国人会适应它，”他继续说道，“然后会接受它，最后会爱上它。”

They have the time. As Bernard Arnault says, the building — and all it represents — “will outlive us all.”

他们有的是时间。就像贝尔纳·阿尔诺说的，这座建筑以及它所代表的一切“将比我们所有人存在得更长久”。