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LVMH announced on Thursday that it is selling Marc Jacobs to New York-based brand management firm WHP Global. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Marc Jacobs will continue in his role as creative director.
“I fear and loathe and also love change. While change is inevitable, what remains constant and unwavering is my love for fashion and the joy it brings me,” Jacobs said in a statement posted to social media. “I am forever grateful to Bernard Arnault for his support, belief and trust in me over the last 30 years. It has been an honour and privilege to work alongside the Arnault family and LVMH.”
The move confirms reports in The Wall Street Journal and other outlets that the French luxury conglomerate was moving ahead with a long-studied sale of Marc Jacobs, targeting a $1 billion valuation.
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Marc Jacobs will become a “cornerstone” of WHP Global’s fashion portfolio, which includes Vera Wang, Rag & Bone and G-Star. The licensing firm will own and operate the brand in partnership with G-III Apparel Group, which controls former LVMH label Donna Karan.
It’s rare for LVMH to offload brands, but the deal comes as a prolonged slowdown in luxury sales has prompted the group to reevaluate its portfolio more actively, shedding some brands in order to focus on bigger, more strategic properties. It sold Off-White to Bluestar Alliance last year, offloaded its share in Stella McCartney back to the label’s founder in January and is reportedly exploring a sale of Rihanna-fronted Fenty Beauty.
LVMH acquired Marc Jacobs in 1997, when the designer was beginning his 16-year tenure at Louis Vuitton in addition to leading his own label. As artistic director of the French brand, Jacobs spearheaded a creative transformation that helped turn Vuitton from a stodgy trunk-and-bag maker into a cross-category fashion giant, leveraging campy, sophisticated runway shows and bankable collaborations with major artists including Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. In the aughts, the brand became ubiquitous in pop culture, and a universal signifier of wealth and consumption parodied by David LaChapelle with his 1999 portrait “Lil’ Kim: Luxury Item.”
Jacobs’ own label grew into a global brand under LVMH’s stewardship, with as many as 250 stores, a more accessible “Marc by Marc Jacobs” line that dominated department store floors and successful licences for beauty and perfume.
But the brand suffered as the fashion industry became increasingly polarised in the 2010s. With heritage brands moving up market, affirming their luxury status while fast-fashion and sports brands stole share from premium players, Jacobs’ “designer” positioning became increasingly untenable amid the collapse of many department stores, and as fashion’s spotlight on his vision faded.
The Marc Jacobs brand was estimated to have lost more than €50 million ($58 million) annually in the years leading up to the pandemic, which forced a programme of more radical changes. Marc Jacobs shuttered most of its boutiques (including its iconic Mercer Street flagship), and honed a streamlined, more targeted business: replacing many flagship stores with handbag corners focused on an accessible offering with price points just a notch above those of Coach and Michael Kors, as well as pushing its 2020-founded “Heaven” line targeting Gen Z, mostly online. The cost of his authoritative runway collections — which continue to anchor the brand’s credibility — became more contained once ready-to-wear was no longer being merchandised for hundreds of stores.
This effort helped turn around the company’s financials, with LVMH even calling out its “remarkable performance” in the first half of 2023. But it’s unlikely the brand has been spared as customers clawed back spending on luxury goods since 2024. (LVMH does not break out sales for individual units.) While the Arnault clan that controls the group has long remained loyal to Jacobs, there was surely a growing sense the label would be a better fit elsewhere.
Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority interest in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholders’ documentation guaranteeing BoF’s complete editorial independence.
