Emmanuel Macron’s win was also a win for Louis Vuitton

(Look Again)
Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election Sunday was not just a victory for the young president’s vision of France and its role in the world, or centrism versus the far-right wing, although it was both of those things.
It was also a victory for fashion, especially high fashion, and the role it plays in reflecting French culture and heritage to the world.
If in doubt, simply consider the election night outfit of Brigitte Macron: a custom-made cropped Louis Vuitton navy jacket with silver military detailing and matching pants, perfectly coordinated with her husband’s navy suit. It was a choice that reflected the couple’s united front as well as the ideological battleground the election had become. And it acted as a subtle signal from an adminration with a bent toward big business and the free market that those relations will continue to flourish in its second term.

Luxury, after all, has been cozying up to Emmanuel Macron since his first run for president, in 2017, and Louis Vuitton has been his wife’s brand of choice since she became first lady.
Although she has worn other French labels, including Balmain (whose designer, Olivier Rousteing, posted a statement on Instagram lauding Macron’s reelection) and Alexandre Vauthier, none have been as regularly represented in her public wardrobe as Louis Vuitton. She has worn Vuitton during many of her most performative moments — those times certain to be preserved visually for hory, when she serves as a representative of not just herself or her spouse, but the country writ large.
She wore Vuitton to her husband’s first inauguration in 2017 (a ba-blue miniskirt suit with another military-inspired jacket). Vuitton to Bastille Day celebrations in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. And Vuitton to state dinners at home and abroad, including the 2018 state dinner hosted President Donald Trump in the Macrons’ honor. Just how many times she has chosen Vuitton can be tracked on the Instagram account devoted to her style, @thebrigittestyle.
Although previous first ladies of France similarly associated themselves with classic French brands, with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy often wearing Dior and Hermès, and Bernadette Chirac wearing Chanel, and although the Macrons have supported French fashion broadly, hosting designers at two dinners in the Élysée Palace during Paris Fashion Week, Brigitte Macron is the first to work so closely with Louis Vuitton.
It is an alliance of political and business power that has served both sides very well.
Fashion, after all, is part of the bedrock of the French economy and its patrimony, and Louis Vuitton plays a very specific role in both. The industry accounts for 1 million jobs in the country, 2.7% of its gross domestic product and 150 billion euros (about $160 billion) in direct sales, according to the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the industry’s governing body.
And within French fashion, Louis Vuitton — currently celebrating the bicentennial of its namesake founder — is a tentpole brand and the engine of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group. As it happens, LVMH is owned and run Bernard Arnault, the third-richest man in the world and a vocal Emmanuel Macron supporter.

Louis Vuitton is also the name on one of the newer museums in Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton, opened in 2014, built Arnault, designed Frank Gehry and designated as a “gift” to the city that will transfer to municipal ownership around 2070.
In late 2021, Macron helped inaugurate the Fondation exhibition of the Morozov Collection, the first time that major Russian collection was seen in Europe. (Although the loan required Russian President Vladimir Putin’s signoff, LVMH has declared its support for all those affected “the tragic situation in Ukraine.”) Also last year, Macron posed with Arnault at the opening of the renovated Samaritaine department store, likewise owned LVMH, saying its reopening was a metaphor for the reopening of Paris after COVID-19 isolation.
It’s a relationship that has not been without symbolic risks, given the associations with elitism, wealth and class implicit in the very term “luxury.” During the yellow vest protests of 2018 against rising fuel prices, many gilded boutiques on shopping thoroughfares such as the Faubourg Saint-Honoré were targeted as examples of what was seen as Macron’s Marie Antoinette-like remove — a criticism that was revived his opponents during the recent campaign. (Marine Le Pen was almost resolutely unbranded in her run for office.)
In choosing Vuitton again for her election night celebration, Brigitte Macron seems to be suggesting that her husband will be doubling down on this particular special relationship. Even though when it comes to that subject, she’s saying nary a word.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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