MEDAL ROUND: Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee, decorated Antoine Arnault as a Knight of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian decoration – and both men should win gold medals for their superb and lively speeches.
Brigitte Macron, Stella McCartney, David Beckham, Diego Della Valle, Remo Ruffini, a squad of top LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton executives and the extended Arnault family piled into Le Pavillon Ledoyen for the ceremony on Wednesday night during Paris Fashion Week.
Dedicated to image and environment at LVMH, and a board member since 2006, Arnault was instrumental in the luxury group’s role as premium partner of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. Jeweler Chaumet designed the medals, Berluti the uniforms for Team France, Louis Vuitton the uniforms, medal trays and trunks, and Dior dressed performers including Celine Dion for the opening ceremonies, for example.
“You brought the elegance, creativity, and high standards of the LVMH group. You made the games more beautiful, you made them more French,” Estanguet said.
Then he swiftly added: “This distinction recognizes your career, your commitments, your high standards, and your always elegant way of bringing it to life.
“You have that rare talent for spotting the right move, the one we didn’t see coming, the one that gives us a head start,” Estanguet said, recounting Arnault’s marketing and business coups at Louis Vuitton, Berluti, Loro Piana and the group at large. “No matter your role within the group, you put your heart into it, and by contributing to the influence of LVMH, you are actually serving a much greater purpose: promoting France, its economy, its expertise, its excellence.”
An Olympic canoeing champion, Estanguet surfaced some little known facts about Arnault, including that he was once in a rock band called Woodhouse.
“We even got paid to play in a few bars,” Arnault related in his speech, sharing his gratitude by naming many key colleagues, and having kind words for each of his siblings, his mother, and luxury titan Bernard Arnault.
“My father, the legend, the GOAT,” Arnault said, peering to his right to look him in the eye. “You have been and always will be the absolute benchmark for me.
“Working as a family is a chance, a responsibility, a joy and a vocation. I have boundless admiration for what you have built, this exceptional group, these tens of thousands of jobs that you have helped to create or preserve. You have been able to invent a family dynamic that allows everyone to express their talents, all different by nature, on different themes,” he said.
His stressed “the art of timing” as a crucial factor in business success, spoke about his passion for sports, and kept deflecting attention away from himself.
“To continue the sporting metaphor, it is a collective reward, even if it is to me that this immense individual honor belongs,” he said. “Thank you all for your presence, for the friendship, for the trust you have shown me over all these years.”