EVP Product & Communications, Tiffany
Search every verified Alexandre Arnault interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Alexandre Arnault, Executive Vice President of Product and Communications at Tiffany & Co., has discussed the company's repositioning since its acquisition by LVMH in 2021. He described the pre-acquisition culture as "lost in translation," stating that the company operated like a mid-market American firm where employees "go home at 5:00 pm" and "nobody questions anything." Arnault said that after the acquisition, employees who preferred that environment left on their own, allowing the company to introduce "entrepreneurship and speed of decision making." He noted that the renovation of the flagship New York store, which was restarted from scratch under architect Peter Marino, took three years and cost "multiple hundreds of millions of dollars," but that the store is "exceeding projections week after week." Arnault has also spoken about marketing strategy and collaborations. He said that the "Not Your Mother's Tiffany" campaign was "controversial" but had a "great impact on sales," with silver business growing the fastest in five years during its month. Regarding collaborations, he stated that the company does not partner with brands to target specific demographics, calling it "completely stupid" to target Millennials because "you feel when it's fake." He said the company looks for partners "willing to do something new and disruptive" and cited the Supreme collaboration as an example of a partnership based on shared interests in streetwear and skateboarding rather than demographic targeting. Arnault also said Tiffany does not sell lab-grown diamonds, stating the company "believe[s] strongly in natural diamonds" and citing social and economic consequences in Africa if the natural diamond industry were displaced.
“It was a bit frightening being this 24‑year‑old arriving telling people 'hey now I'm your new owner and I'm your new CEO' — a lot of reassuring was needed in the beginning and then when all that was done we could start working day two.”
“The travel market as a whole is growing extremely fast — look at France, China, the U.S. — travel is becoming much more accessible, and Rimowa was a pure player in luggage: a functional product with unbelievable heritage and unbelievable potential.”
“I don't really like the word 'luxury' — price is too linked to it and I don't think price has anything to do with our products; we prefer to use 'high quality' instead.”
“Functionality matters because many functional brands get the pockets and features right but the products themselves aren't desirable — you can look at the iPhone as the ultimate functional product that people buy because it's functional.”
“The Supreme project was much more than putting red on a suitcase — we had 202 spare parts from 202 suppliers and needed the exact same red across all of them; it took eight months of testing and color‑matching, and then demand exploded with sellouts and a huge resale market.”
“We can't do anything against the resale market — people camped outside stores and resold items at huge markups, but that scarcity and resale increased desirability and even allowed us to become the most expensive suitcase in the world for a moment.”
“We have about 95 service centers around the world that will fix your suitcase in less than 24 hours — so you may never need to go back into a shop again, and service is a big part of keeping customers coming back.”
“The biggest advantage of being family‑owned is the long‑term vision: you can make bold decisions that may not make sense short‑term but are right for the brand long‑term — previous over‑investment in the factory now gives us the most powerful industrial tool in luggage.”
“We try not to do too many collaborations — there's no strict recipe; we look for chemistry and partners willing to do something new and disruptive rather than ticking a demographic box.”
“My first day was January 6, 2021 — that day I spent most of it in front of the TV to understand what was happening in the country, but being said we were acquiring a company that was publicly traded in the US and bringing it into the LVMH ecosystem which has the opposite behavior: a very long‑term view, no quarterly re...”
“We bought the company with about 320 stores which we still have today and we don't plan on changing that too much, but investing into your store network is super expensive and takes multiple years — so we started an expansion plan and a renovation plan when we arrived.”
“The New York store on the corner of 57 and Fifth Avenue is probably the most iconic luxury store in the world; in 2019 that store was doing 12% of the sales of the entire company and when management announced its closure for renovation the stock tanked 15% that day.”
“It took basically three years to reopen after we restarted the project — it's 10,000 square meters on 10 floors and it cost multiple hundreds of millions of dollars just for one store, and it's paying off: we're exceeding projections week after week.”
“Social media and the immediacy of things creates hurdles when it comes to innovation — you can't test anything anymore because everything you do is immediately public, commented on, criticized or applauded.”
“Brands, especially when they reach a certain scale, become more than just luxury — they become culture; Tiffany touches many different points beyond products, and every person I interview has a story with Tiffany, which to me makes it cultural.”
Alexandre Arnault, Executive Vice President of Product and Communications @TiffanyandCo in conversation with Antoine Flamarion, Co-founder @tikehaucapital7956.
SUBSCRIBE for more speakers ► http://is.gd/OxfordUnion Oxford Union on Facebook: / theoxfordunion Oxford Union on Twitter: @OxfordUnion Website: http://www.oxford-union.org/ Alexandre Arnault is the Executive Vice President of Products and Communication at Tiffany & Co. Born in France, his first major move at the jewelry brand was to create an Audrey Hepburn-inspired campaign featuring Beyonce and Jay-Z. He holds a Master’s degree in Science, majoring in innovation from the Ecole Polytechnique. ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Oxford Union is the world's most prestigious debating soci…
Rimowa's chief executive Alexandre Arnault talks about appealing to different segments of the market, his plans for the next 10 years and his love for solo travel. Read the full story: https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyl... In the Lunch with Sumiko series, ST executive editor Sumiko Tan gets up close with newsmakers over lunch - and a selfie. For more on Lunch With Sumiko series: https://www.straitstimes.com/tags/lun... Subscribe to The Straits Times YouTube channel for free: https://www.youtube.com/user/StraitsT... Get the latest news updates: http://www.straitstimes.com Follow The Stra…
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