LVMH Agrees to Sell Marc Jacobs to Whp Global
LVMH agreed to sell Marc Jacobs to whp global for an undisclosed amount, handing the brand to a New York-based firm that said the addition will push its global retail sales above $9.5 billion. Marc Jacobs will stay on as founder and creative director after the transaction closes, while the business moves into a new ownership structure built around WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group.
WHP Global adds Marc Jacobs
WHP Global will join with G-III Apparel Group in owning the brand, and the two companies will form a 50/50 joint venture that keeps Marc Jacobs’s intellectual property in place after the deal closes. G-III will then acquire the operating business from that venture and enter a long-term licensing agreement, a structure that separates ownership of the brand’s rights from day-to-day operations.
$500 million is the investment G-III said it will make in the transaction, while the deal’s valuation is understood to be around $1 billion. Those figures put a price on a label that has remained comparatively small inside LVMH’s fashion and leather goods division, even as it became an internationally recognized fashion house under the French luxury group’s ownership.
Arnault backs a new chapter
“Marc Jacobs is a designer of rare creativity and unique vision,” Bernard Arnault said in an LVMH statement on Thursday. He added: “His impact on the world of fashion is undeniable, and I want to warmly thank him for his contribution to the success of the maison and the LVMH Group over the last 30 years. I am confident that this new chapter will offer new avenues of opportunity for Marc Jacobs, that the brand and its designer will continue to inspire customers and creators around the world.”
30 years is the span Arnault cited in that tribute, and it matches the period since LVMH took a majority stake in 1997 after Jacobs had been appointed the first creative director of Louis Vuitton. The brand’s path before and during that ownership still shapes the handoff now: Jacobs and Robert Duffy founded the label in 1984, Marc by Marc Jacobs launched in 2001 and was discontinued in 2015, and Heaven by Marc Jacobs followed in 2020.
Jacobs keeps creative control
Marc Jacobs will remain founder and creative director after closing, which keeps the design voice in place even as ownership shifts to WHP Global and G-III. Jacobs said in an Instagram post that when he met with Yehuda Shmidman, “it was abundantly clear that his respect, admiration, appreciation, and love for the house we built was genuine and sincere (and by we, I mean all of us).”
“As I continue on my journey as creative director, I want to express my indebtedness to all of the passionate, hardworking, devoted, creative, and talented teams of people at Marc Jacobs International…I am forever grateful to Bernard Arnault for his support, belief, and trust in me over the last 30 years. It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside the Arnault family and LVMH,” Jacobs wrote after the announcement. For shoppers and business partners, the practical change is a new owner, a separate operating model, and a brand that now sits inside a portfolio already including G-Star, Joe’s, Express, Vera Wang and Rag & Bone.
