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French luxury goods company LVMH has sold its stake in the streetwear label Off-White three years after the death of the brand’s founder, Virgil Abloh. New York–based brand management company Bluestar Alliance now owns LVMH’s stake.
LVMH, which owns 74 brands, including Louis Vuitton and Dior, reported a net profit drop of 14 percent in July as luxury revenues have stalled. The company had also been finding new leadership capable of carrying out a renewed strategy for the streetwear label.
The financial terms of the sale to Bluestar, which also owns department store brands like Bebe and Hurley, were not disclosed by the LVMH.
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Bluestar has acquired other embattled clothing companies in recent years, including the Dutch label Scotch & Soda, which it bought in 2023 shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy. The basis Bluestar’s strategy, according to the company’s website, is “managing, restoring, acquiring and upgrading a brand.”
Joey Gabbay, Bluestar’s chief executive, said in a statement that the deal will allow for “the continuation of the cultural and creative momentum that Virgil ignited.” Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s Paris-based owner, described the management company as “the perfect partner to carry that legacy forward.”
Gabbay did not disclose many details about a potential restructuring of the brand’s operations. As of March 2023, Off-White brought in annual sales of $227.6 million.
Since Abloh’s death in 2021, the Milan-based brand has experienced tumult behind the scenes. Off-White maintains a licensing agreement with the Italian luxury production company New Guards Group, which is owned by the embattled luxury e-commerce retailer Farfetch. The future of New Guards Group started to seem uncertain, however, when investors began eyeing a sale of Farfetch in 2023. This past January, Farfetch was acquired by South Korean Coupang Inc in an emergency bid for the online platform.
Prior to Abloh’s death in 2021, LVMH increased its minority stake in Off-White, announcing that Abloh would take on a deeper role within the French company. He started designing for Louis Vuitton, LVMH’s main revenue driver, in 2018.
While many of Abloh’s most famous contributions took place in the world of fashion, he also had a significant art world following and even received a survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago during his lifetime.
The sale comes after Off-White returned to New York Fashion Week last month under the creative direction of former Dazed editor Ibrahim Kamara, who succeeded Abloh in 2022.
