A group of luxury companies, including Chanel and Dior, yesterday met Antonio Tajani, the European Commissioner for industry. The fashion houses and luxury brands entered the hallowed halls of the EU for the first time to discuss how they might be able to work together.
Wait — the first time? Yes, weird as that may sound, after two years of lobbying, the ECCIA (European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance, the over-arching European luxury organisation made up of the groups from the UK (Walpole), France (Comite Colbert), Italy (Altagamma), Germany (Meisterkreis – Deutsches Forum für Luxus), and Spain (Circulo Fortuny) finally succeeded in getting Brussels’ attention.
You have to wonder what took them so long. After all, luxury is one of the few growth stories coming out of Europe.
Consider their stats:
- of the top 25 worldwide luxury companies, 17 are from the EU;
- they are responsible for 75 per cent of the global luxury market, more than €170bn of the worldwide luxury goods consumption and employed, in 2010, from 800,000 to 1 million people.
- more than 70 per cent of the luxury goods produced in Europe are exported outside the region.
Whoa! Tax euros!
According to a member of the ECCIA who asked to remain anonymous, the EC has been classifying luxury variously under the fashion and/or textiles sectors and only latterly had come to realise it might be an industry on its own — and one worth exploiting (something perhaps to do with recent quarterly results, which are up in the double digits for LVMH, Hermes, Dior — you name ‘em — versus youth unemployment figures, which are similarly in double digits).
Anyway, the fact Brussels has come so late to the luxury party explains the exciting outcome of the meeting, which was….
- a proposal that the attendees become an “advisory board on competitiveness”;
- “The creation of a European data observatory for the luxury market”;
- a new study “on the importance of the luxury sector to Europe and its links to tourism”.
In other words, they are going to collect more stats. Aside from the fact that management consultancy firm Bain& Company already does that (see last month’s Worldwide Luxury Goods Market study), as an “action plan” this seems like a whole lotta nothing to me. The ECCIA , however, says it’s a start, and has issued a super-positive statement welcoming the initiative.
Indeed, they have also suggested some more things the EC could do, like “encourage online growth and innovation of the cultural and creative industries.” Exactly how Brussels should do that remains to be seen, but now that they’ve woken up to the fact the luxury sector exists and might actually have some power — well, tit for tat, you know.
Vanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.