In New York, the return to less exuberant prosperity

At the start of autumn, it is not the luxury houses that are the attraction on the V^e Avenue in New York. It will be necessary to wait until the spring of 2023 for the renovated building of Tiffany to be inaugurated with great fanfare by its owner, LVMH. This does not prevent the latter from bringing the legend to life, by showing his fans his Tiffany creation workshop, in the heart of Manhattan, where designers, artisan jewelers and digital creation specialists live together. “It’s the alliance of craftsmanship with technology”comments Dana Naberezny, head of innovation at Tiffany.

But, in the meantime, the novelty is the rebirth of restaurants. The great chefs are rediscovering the prosperity of yesteryear: Lyonnais Daniel Boulud never stops opening restaurants, this time at One Vanderbilt, between Grand Central and Bryant Park. Rockefeller Center is once again crowded and Christie’s auction of the collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen could top $1 billion in November. “There’s nothing really remarkable except the desire to see the city back, the desire to be together, and the restaurants are full”notes Thomaï Serdari, luxury specialist and professor at New York University.

Purchase of watches

This summer, there were fewer buyers than expected on the V^e Avenue and at LVMH. Americans had fled to Europe, to travel for the first time since the Covid pandemic and take advantage of the weakness of the euro, which makes luxury goods 20% cheaper than a year ago. “I was at a dinner with some bosses recently and they all told me how they had been on holiday in Europe and bought a lot of luxury goods there”says Anish Melwani CEO of LVMH in the United States. In short, the American always buys more, but not necessarily on American soil. Everything would be back to normal in September.

The lesson of the pandemic is curiously this return to normal. Among the achievements, Anish Melwani notes that new buyers, who had discovered luxury during the Covid, continue to buy. But the fundamentals are coming back. The pandemic had seen a surge in purchases of watches, jewelry, a strong presence of men, an attraction for sports shoes. Two years later, women have regained their place and the path to boutiques, while the high end is the segment that is once again experiencing the strongest growth.

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