The Luxe Life

Readers weigh in on our November cover: Bernard Arnault, the $100 billion man.

The impeccably tailored Bernard Arnault, chief executive of French luxury powerhouse LVMH, graced the cover of our November 30 issue, newly enshrined as the world’s third-richest man, with a $100 billion fortune. Famed and disdained in equal measure for his often predatory business instincts, the family man— four of Arnault’s five children work under him, by all accounts harmoniously—has spent the last several years engaging in a variety of corporate partnerships and acquisitions that have helped LVMH’s stock, along with his own net worth, soar. Famed: “Absolutely genius and deserving of his success,” wrote reader Stanley Lam on Facebook. “Inherits and sells the family construction business to reinvent himself into a fashion powerhouse.” And disdained: “Bank your own hustle . . . don’t bank his,” wrote Stephanie SH, also on Facebook. “Nothing [Arnault] sells is a necessity for the middle class, or anyone, really. His products have huge carbon footprints. Nothing to celebrate here except his hustle. He’s not leaving the world a better place.”