2024 Rumor Confirmed: Louis Vuitton Is At Bat for Beverly Hills Cheval Blanc Axed Property

2024 Rumor Confirmed: Louis Vuitton Is At Bat for Beverly Hills Cheval Blanc Axed Property

2024 Rumor Confirmed: Louis Vuitton Is At Bat for Beverly Hills Cheval Blanc Property

California Dreamin’ . . .

There are many reasons why Louis Vuitton adores America and has an extra deep love affair with California. Progressive, multicultural, artistic in multiple disciplines, great weather, big money, and a maverick spirit all make the list for why LVMH and several maisons — but especially Louis Vuitton — have California Dreamin’ in their blood.

WWD shared in February 2024 the unconfirmed rumor that Louis Vuitton hopes to take over the defeated proposal for a 109-key Cheval Blanc hotel on the 50,000 sq foot property on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Pietro Beccari plans larger and grander retail attractions and fashion show events for Louis Vuitton locations around the world.

Today — on Labor Day 2025 in America — the rumor has been confirmed by Bloomberg, who has seen the filings with the city of Los Angeles for Beccari’s big new dream baby.

‘Huge’ Takes Many Forms and LVMH Has Human Assets

Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari arrived at Louis Vuitton in January 2023, with a key priority of recruiting Pharrell Williams to the world’s biggest luxury brand to replace the beloved, and sorely missed Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton Mens, Virgil Abloh.

AOC was first and early, to the best of our knowledge, in calling for Williams to join LVMH Men.

We were the only media source with the moxie to criticize the team that lost the 2023 special vote for the Cheval Blanc in Beverly Hills. And we proposed a far better team to deal with LA politics, if the Louis Vuitton takeover of the site was true.

Prepare for takeoff!!

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Maison Keï Akai Presents “Damier” Exhibition Featuring Richard Bernardin until June 30, 2025

Maison Keï Akai Presents “Damier” Exhibition Featuring Richard Bernardin until June 30, 2025

Maison Keï Akai Presents “Damier” Exhibition Featuring Richard Bernardin until June 30, 2025

Maison Keï Akai is proud to unveil DAMIER, a striking new black-and-white group exhibition opening on Thursday, June 12th, in celebration of Grand Prix Montreal 2025 weekend. Drawing inspiration from the graphic elegance of the iconic checkered flag, the exhibition is a bold homage to the visual language of Formula 1 and the energy it brings to Montreal each summer.

AOC’s pleasure in sharing this Maison Keï Akai news flows from the intersection of multiple events, cultural issues and people who have touched my life in very positive ways.

Richard Bernardin: the Heart of Maison Keï Akai’s ‘Damier Exhibition

Breathing “life, sensuality and wisdom” [all Anne’s words] into the Montreal exhibition is internationally-acclaimed fashion photographer Richard Bernardin, whose evocative large-format black-and-white prints will be prominently featured.

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Maria Grazia Chiuri Says 'Au Revoir' to Dior | AOC Shares a Breadcrumb from Jonathan Anderson

Maria Grazia Chiuri Says 'Au Revoir' to Dior | AOC Shares a Breadcrumb from Jonathan Anderson

Maria Grazia Chiuri Says 'Au Revoir' to Dior | AOC Shares a Breadcrumb from Jonathan Anderson

I want to speak a moment about what I interpreted as a Grade A***** breadcrumb to Chiuri’s fans from the new Dior Men’s Artistic Director, also ‘waiting in the wings for the next big announcement’ regarding Dior Women.

For those of us for whom Chiuri is an absolute goddess on every level, Anderson’s quiet gesture might have been a coincidence. But I come from the school of people who believe there is no such thing as a coincidence at the highest levels of LVMH. Not like this one.

it was Jonathan Anderson’s ad campaign and film for his LOEWE Spring Summer 2025 Pre-Collection campaign that was a breadcrumb ‘diamond in the rough’ message.

The message was the arrival of Lilith, the mythological demon goddess believed to be Adam’s first wife. Lilith had no desire to be a tradwife, and she stormed out of the Garden of Eden.

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Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio's Spirit Surely Enjoyed the Chanel Show at His Villa d'Este

Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio's Spirit Surely Enjoyed the Chanel Show at His Villa d'Este

Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio's Spirit Surely Enjoyed the Chanel Show at His Villa d'Este

The Cardinal who originally built Villa d’Este in 1568 with architect Pellegrino Tibaldi — home of Chanel’s recent Resort 2025/26 show was Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. The Cardinal was a self-made man by all reports, a thinker deeply influenced by the movement AOC continually calls out, thanks to Brunello Cucinelli. The philosophy is called ‘humanism’ and even ‘Christian humanism’.

As AOC noted in Anne’s recent post examining the religious views of the controversial US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his embrace of Christian Nationalism and the Crusades, Arab world universities were instrumental in translating and preserving ancient Greek and Roman texts, which would later be transmitted to Europe and spur on the Renaissance.

Anne of Carversville works really hard to find new twists and turns in historical stories for which we believe we have the facts. The role of the Arab world in intellectual discussion and debate about Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and more in Europe’s most valued and prominent universities in the early Renaissance is one of those stories.

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When LOEWE’s Jonathan Anderson Was Inspired by The Glasgow School

When LOEWE’s Jonathan Anderson Was Inspired by The Glasgow School

AOC is reviewing the totality of Anderson’s work for LOEWE, including work we’ve not shared before. These fashion images capturing the 2018 Loewe x Charles Rennie Mackintosh capsule collection are a perfect example of Anderson’s enormous respect for Arts & Crafts movements worldwide.

The handsome Felix Sueur joined with models Fran Summers and Giselle Norman in the Loewe x Charles Rennie Mackintosh capsule collection lookbook lensed by fashion photographer Craig McDean with styling by Benjamin Bruno. /Hair by Anthony Turner; makeup by Lynsey Alexander

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Hotel Stories: The Ritz Paris Founders César and Marie-Louise Ritz Pt-1

Hotel Stories: The Ritz Paris Founders César and Marie-Louise Ritz Pt-1

Hotel Stories: The Ritz Paris Founders César and Marie-Louise Ritz

From the outset, the Ritz Paris, one of the most iconic luxury hotels in the world, set new benchmarks for luxury and hospitality, drawing an elite clientele that included royalty, politicians, artists, and writers. The hotel's origins are deeply intertwined with the vision and standards of César Ritz, whose legacy continues to influence luxury hospitality today at Ritz-Carlton hotels worldwide.

AOC is exploring the history of Ritz Paris, the lives of people staying at the hotel and also its founders. I’m struck writing the first words with the idea of forming a timeline around great luxury brands.

We have Louis Vuitton arriving in Paris as a young man with little money in 1837 and César Ritz arriving 30 years later. The Ritz Paris opened in 1898, the year after Guccio Gucci arrived in London in 1897, finding work as a bellhop at the Savoy Hotel.

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Humanist Industry Leader Moncler Tops Dow Jones Luxury Sustainability Index

Humanist Industry Leader Moncler Tops Dow Jones Luxury Sustainability Index

Humanist Industry Leader Moncler Tops Dow Jones Luxury Sustainability Index

For the sixth consecutive year in a row, Moncler Group topped the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for World and Europe in the "textile, apparel & luxury goods" sector. On the consolidated list of 500 most sustainable businesses across all sectors, Moncler was #3.

Moncler’s top guy Remo Ruffini embraces many historical humanist values besides responsibility to the environment. What we’ve learned about humanism from Brunello Cucinelli surely applies to Ruffini.

What is so impactful is his generous praise of other business leaders, including Bernard Arnault and Ralph Lauren. Business relationships built on trust is a key word in AOC’s analysis. Anne is back in her AI for scholars this moment, looking for alignment between humanism and freemasonry across Europe.

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Dior 2020 Pre-Fall Campaign and Dior x Jordan Collab Resonate Deeply

Dior 2020 Pre-Fall Campaign and Dior x Jordan Collab Resonate Deeply

Actor Jennifer Lawrence returns to Dior’s pre-fall 2020 campaign in a series of ladylike glamour images that emphasize the perfection of craft over trends. Creative director Maria Grazia Chuiri’s designs evoke Dior-s post-WWII elegance in portraits by Brigitte Niedermair.

The photo shoot happened before the global health pandemic COVID-19, but within this new context, Dior’s campaign images offer a vision of calm elegance, self-discipline and strong backbone.

Too rarefied in 2020, you ask? Hardly, as fashion plunges into a reflection on our own values as consumers and as an industry — staring in the face of a global depression.

Scroll down to witness the delayed but new Dior x Jordan collab that has people talking.