The Tamesis
U.S. brands performed well, especially Ralph Lauren, whose sales increased by 10% in the third quarter of 2026 to $2.4 billion; Tapestry, whose sales increased by 14% (up 25%), driven by Coach.
In the United States, luxury brands are flexing their retail muscles. This fall, Dior opened a store on Los Angeles’ Rodeo Drive and a restaurant by three-Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn. Following the opening of the first Moncler Grenoble store in St. Moritz in December 2023, Moncler has opened a second Moncler Grenoble store in Aspen and will open a flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York this year. Hermès has confirmed plans to open a larger flagship store on Rodeo Drive.
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Why Moncler chose Aspen for its second Grenoble store
The luxury brand’s dedicated ski collection celebrated the opening of its newest store with a huge show and party in the Colorado ski town on Saturday. It emphasizes serious investment in the U.S. market.
“Our Rodeo Drive store became too small,” Dumas said. Advertisement
Come May, many luxury brands will host their 2027 resort shows stateside.
“One thing to watch is the stock market,” said Kering’s de Meo. “A lot of Americans have their savings in stocks. So if the market does well, it will continue to drive growth in our industry. If there’s a crash — like the AI bubble — we’ll talk about it again. But for now, things are looking good.”
The gap begins to narrow
“The K-shaped economy – where the top end of the economy grows but the low end lags as inequality widens – continues to be a theme in the fourth quarter,” Édouard Aubin, managing director at Morgan Stanley, said before earnings season began in January. “Brands at the top of the luxury pyramid are outperforming due to the huge wealth effect, but I think the gap will narrow slightly.”
It has indeed shrunk. “Fourth quarter results continued to be highly polarized, but the gap in organic growth performance narrowed to 24%,” Solca said, noting that the gap compared with 38% a year ago. (Richemont’s jewelry brand grew by 14% in the fourth quarter of 2024, while Gucci fell by 24%).
High-end brands such as Hermès, Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli and Cartier are still defying the odds, driven by the resilience of ultra-affluent consumers. “At Loro Piana, we have only one problem: growth is slowing down,” Arnault said. But brands with middle-income customers are seeing some early signs of recovery.
Charles-Louis Scotti, head of luxury equity research at Kepler Cheuvreux, said: “Companies such as Burberry, Gucci and Ferragamo are gaining momentum.” In the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending December 27, 2025), Burberry’s comparable retail sales increased 3% to 665 million pounds. After a sluggish 2025, Ferragamo’s sales improved in the fourth quarter, with sales falling 2% to 282 million euros, including a 6.3% increase in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel.
As expected, the jewelry continues to shine
Sales in LVMH’s watches and jewelry division rose 8%, while sales in Hermès’ “other divisions,” which include jewelry, rose 12.9%. Sales of Richemont jewelry brands, including Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, rose 14% in the quarter, beating expectations. Despite the strong performance, Richemont’s shares fell after the earnings report as investors took the jewelry industry’s strength for granted. Kering did not detail the growth rate of its jewelry brands but said its respective businesses would generate revenue of about 1 billion euros by 2025. To strengthen its industrial capabilities in this category, Kering acquired jewelry manufacturer Raselli Franco in December 2025. De Meo sees huge potential as he seeks to reduce the group’s reliance on fashion cycles.
