LVMH’s Métiers d’Art division showcases innovation, sustainability at Lineapelle

LVMH’s Métiers d’Art division is making quite an impression with its maiden participation at Lineapelle, the leather sector’s leading trade show, with 1,300 exhibitors from 40 countries. Métiers d’Art was created by LVMH in 2015 to support the group’s craftsmanship and manufacturing excellence worldwide. It currently includes 17 companies, and nine of them, leather treatment and metal hardware specialists, are exhibiting at Lineapelle in a huge, 700-square-metre stand. FashionNetwork.com met with CEO Matteo De Rosa, who has been in charge of the division for the last two years. In this time, Métiers d’Art companies have grown from two to 17, with a revenue that rose from €80 million to €700 million. De Rosa spoke about the division’s structure and plans.

FashionNetwork.com: What is the ultimate goal of Métiers d’Art?
 
Matteo De Rosa: Our mission is to ensure that manufacturing excellence has a future in the luxury industry, by buying full or partial stakes in companies and keeping on their staff, to ensure the continuity of their expertise. We engage with businesses that are leaders in their fields, across the industry’s entire supply chain: from sheep and exotic animals breeding to leather production and treatment, metal hardware and fabric manufacturing. Five Métiers d’Art companies are based in Italy, two in France, one in Spain and another in Portugal, and we recently acquired a Japanese company that produces denim dyed with natural indigo. We also have breeding farms in Australia, Zimbabwe, Louisiana and France.

FNW: What added-value do you bring to these companies?
 
MDR: By pooling together, we help them improve in terms of sustainability and traceability. Any Métiers d’Art company can also do business with clients that don’t belong to LVMH. All our brands compete with one another, but it’s great that [the expertise that] lies behind a top-notch product can be put at everyone’s disposal.

 
FNW: What are you exhibiting at Lineapelle?
 
MDR: Firstly, we are exhibiting at Lineapelle for the first time as a single entity, with nine companies showcasing their products inside a single stand that has been designed as a huge ivory-coloured bridge, elegant and understated. From the leather sector we have Heng Long, Masoni, the Nuti Ivo Group (comprising Everest, Nuti Ivo, Papete, Lloyd and Novakem), Riba Guixà, Tanneries Roux and Verdeveleno; from the metal hardware sector we have GBGM, Jade Group and M.On.De. We’re now launching the first Métiers d’Art website and introducing our new logo, designed as a seal of excellence and representing the five continents in which we’re active. It’s what we want to be: a hallmark of excellence, sustainability, ethical practices and innovation, with each of the companies that belong to the group preserving their own identity.
 
FNW: In what does your sustainability ethos consist?
 
MDR: We’re starting from a notion we defined as ’One Welfare’, according to which there must be a balance between three elements: mankind, the environment, and the animal world. We have invested heavily in research in the last few years, and we wanted external agencies to certify that we’re working in the best way possible. For example, we sponsor one of the leading US colleges of veterinary medicine, in Ohio, so that they can carry out all kinds of research at our breeding farms. It’s an independent state university, and they are free to say that the way we’re doing things doesn’t work. In Zimbabwe, we own a farm where we source crocodile skin, where we provide jobs and support to a local community of 5,000 people.

 
FNW: How do you manage to reconcile manufacturing, which has rigid rules and timing, with creativity?

MDR: When Métiers d’Art was set up, we started the ‘Residence Artistique’ programme: every year, a renowned or emerging artist holds a residency in one of our companies, where they are free to create what they want. To produce their creations, the artists are forced to establish a dialogue with the manufacturing department, and this sparks a positive connection between creativity and production.

FNW: Are you planning to introduce other companies to Métiers d’Art soon?

MDR: We’re always on the look-out for craftsmanship excellence to expand our family, and there will soon be an important addition, a European company, but I can’t reveal anything else for the time being.

Métiers d’Art operates in the leather, exotic skins and metal hardware sectors. In leather, Métiers d’Art is active in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, beginning with the breeding farms of its Domaine des Massifs partner; Gruppo Nuti Ivo, Tanneries Roux, Masoni and Riba Guixà are active in tanning and finishing, enabling the division to produce high-quality calf and lamb skin; and Robans is active in ready-to-wear leather apparel. In exotic skins, Métiers d’Art is a leader in animal breeding with a network of farms certified for animal welfare in Africa, Australia and the USA, and also owns the Heng Long tannery, based in Singapore and Italy, a global benchmark for crocodile skin treatment, and Verdeveleno, a Spain-based specialist in exotic skin treatment. Finally, Métiers d’Art also comprises the M.On.De., GBJM and Jade Group factories, among the top producers of metal hardware for luxury labels in Europe and Asia.