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Save this story Save Story Save this story Fashion and art institutions are preparing for another fraught weekend after hundreds of stores were looted in Paris, Milan and other European cities last weekend, as rioters took advantage of the disruption caused by protestors advocating for better cost of living and education conditions. It comes at a busy moment for the French capital in particular, which this weekend is set to play host to a series of events in the realms of art, sport and fashion — some of which has now been called off.
Art Basel Paris, which opened on Tuesday for its Avant-Première (super VIP) day, and on Wednesday, for the full VIP preview, canceled its Saturday and Sunday slots, now finishing at the end of the day on Friday. This decision was made “in light of potential demonstrations across Paris this weekend”, the fair organizers said in an email to press on Thursday, adding that it is “in the interest of safeguarding our visitors, exhibitors, partners, staff, and artworks”. It followed calls on social media for protestors to target the fair. Visitors attending the fair on Friday will be required to show government ID.
“This decision has not been taken lightly, and the safety of everyone involved in the fair remains our utmost priority,” Art Basel’s email to press continued. “Art Basel remains fully committed to serving galleries and artists, creating meaningful encounters with art and bringing our international community together.”
Other art museums and events, including Fondation Louis Vuitton, took a similar approach, and will also be closed for part or all of Saturday. Some events went ahead before anxieties about the protests heated up; on October 20, Miu Miu celebrated the premiere of Alice Dolop’s exhibition, Geste de Consolation, which was slated to run until October 25.
It’s not just the art scene facing disruption. This Sunday, the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints will play at the Stade de France. The NFL has said that it’s confident in its security teams and that the game will go on. Events surrounding the game, however, have been canceled, including a private brunch hosted by the NFL’s style editor.
Beauty brand Glow Recipe was set to host a pop-up on October 24 and 25, but announced on Instagram on Wednesday that the activation will not proceed as planned. “The safety of our community, our team, and everyone involved will always come first,” the brand posted. “To everyone who registered and was looking forward to joining us, thank you so much for your excitement, love, and understanding. We’re so grateful for this community and hope to share a little pink paradise with you in Paris very soon.”
The protests were a topic of conversation during this week’s luxury earnings calls, many of which had stores looted last weekend. Hermès executive vice president of finance Éric du Halgouët noted that the brand’s stores have since reopened in Paris, though its Marseille store remains closed.
“We’re first and foremost thinking about those who experienced these events firsthand, namely our employees and our customers, who were affected by acts of violence and looting,” he told investors on Thursday during the company’s earnings call. “The first measures we took were aimed at protecting our employees. We haven’t observed [any significant impact] over the past two days.”
“So this is another unfortunate thing happening,” Prada Group CEO Andrea Guerra said during the company’s earnings also on Thursday. “Luckily, I believe we were not touched by any kind of physical violence in our stores. We will obviously be open any other day and the next weekend. Obviously, if the authorities, the police, say we have to close, we will close. This is it: this is the world we live in today.”
Ernesto Greco, Ferragamo’s executive board member, told analysts that while its stores weren’t impacted in last Saturday’s riots, “We cannot exclude that if the disorders continue, the tourism, the local customer base could be tempted to either postpone or even to stop buying.”
Many stores that were looted last weekend have since reopened, including Printemps, Celine and Hermès. “We are pleased to announce the reopening of our store which had been closed following the destruction last weekend,” Celine CEO Séverine Merle posted to LinkedIn on Wednesday. “This reopening in record time was made possible thanks to the extraordinary mobilization of all the teams,” she wrote, thanking the store employees for their talent and passion.
LVMH hasn’t announced any French store closures ahead of the weekend for its brands, which include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine and Fendi.
During its earnings call on Thursday, Kering said five of its stores in France were looted, including four in Paris and one in Nice. The group added that it remains vigilant in the current context.
Those that do stay open risk further looting, though closing means losing another weekend of business after losing both sales and product less than a week ago. Risk is higher for small and independent boutiques, who don’t have the infrastructure and the inventory that the large luxury brands do.
Already, resale sites such as Vinted and Ebay are navigating what to do about stolen goods winding up on their platforms, and have confirmed they are increasing their monitoring of such items. A spokesperson for Vestiaire Collective says that the company’s curation, authentication, and fraud teams have immediately reinforced their monitoring processes. “We are actively tracking unusual behaviors and statistical anomalies that could be linked to recent events, with a particular focus on newly created seller profiles and abnormal listing patterns in specific categories. When doubts arise, targeted verification protocols are immediately triggered,” the spokesperson says.
Vestiaire Collective has held meetings with luxury brands this week to align on their course of action. “We have dedicated channels that allow victimized brands to share inventory alerts with our teams, enabling us to run targeted checks and immediately blacklist matching merchandise.
We also systematically comply with all official judicial requisitions to help authorities hold unlawful actors accountable,” the spokesperson adds.
Vestiaire is not ruling out the possibility that these heightened protocols will become the new normal, at least for the time being. “It is difficult to project an exact timeline for this ‘hyper vigilance’ phase,” Vestiaire’s spokesperson says. “However, our AI and monitoring models continuously learn from these heightened measures. If this trend of stolen items in the broader market continues, these reinforced protocols and stricter verification rules will simply become our new organizational baseline, ensuring that our ecosystem remains completely hostile to illicit activity.”
It’s too early to say whether the impact of the protests and looting will have an impact on brands due to reduced tourism to France, executives on Thursday’s calls agreed. “The question is whether recent events in France have an impact on tourism, but it is still too early to answer that question today,” Hermès’s du Halgouët said.
Source: Lifestyle
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