Supporting the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter was among the various efforts that are being publicized.

Chantal Gaemperle, LVMH Group executive vice president of human resources and synergies and L’Autre Cercle’s Catherine Tripon at the recent signing. PHOTO BY MARIE ROUGE/COURTESY LVMH
As part of its global effort to enhance inclusion within its workforce and through the consumers that it markets to, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has rolled out its “Voices of Inclusion Week.”
Running through Tuesday, the initiative features 50 to 100 activations that highlight varying degrees of diversity and inclusion and building upon the company’s existing programs while laying the groundwork for future plans. Primers about awareness and training, best practices and accountability are among the issues being addressed. With 180,000 to 200,000 employees — including 45,000 new recruits within this year — such efforts stand to have significant impact internally as well as through the millions of people they encounter annually through their work. The aim is to make “Voices of Inclusion” an annual event.
In an interview Thursday, Vanessa Moungar, chief D&I officer at the LVMH Group, noted that with 75 maisons operating in more than 80 countries, “There is so much going on on the ground in terms of diversity and inclusion that we wanted to have an occasion to make all of the voices louder together at the same time.”
As for what this signals to consumers about the group’s accountability, she said, “The event in itself is not the moment where something is happening. The week is to really put the spotlight on our values and engagement throughout the year. Our talent is first, because we really believe that people make the difference. We are a very big group and we are growing very fast. We want to make sure that our talent feel part of it, empowered, respected and represented. People think of us very often in terms of fashion or beauty, but we are across six different sectors. We have so many different and diverse backgrounds way beyond what you would imagine as traditional dimensions of diversity — which are gender, sexual orientation, disability, age…,” Moungar said.
One central point of the inclusive week happened when LVMH signed the LGBT+ Engagement Charter on Wednesday night. The charter was launched by the French nonprofit L’Autre Cercle in 2013 to establish equal rights and equal treatment to everyone in a work environment.
To magnify LVMH’s commitment to the charter, an event was held in Paris Wednesday night that was attended by 20 of the group’s chief executive officers. The global luxury company joins a list of 130 other companies that have already committed to the charter, which was created to ensure inclusion for LGBTQ employees. While many people expect that practices that oppose discrimination in all its forms should already be done or “already normalized” in the fashion and beauty industry, Moungar said that is not the case. Referring to the renewed commitment, she said that “ensures that everyone is aware of the things that we really believe in across our ecosystem.”
In addition, LVMH has committed to the Mitigate Racial Bias in Retail Charter, which was started by the nonprofit Open to All and Sephora in September. The charter is meant to bring together retailers to implement tactics and actions that are meant to eliminate race biases from the shopping experience and create more welcoming retail environments.
On another front, LVMH is releasing its D&I Global roadmap internally. That has three pillars for action — people, which spans recruitment, development, benefits and other areas; partners, as in the supply chain, and image, with an eye on the external work. One initiative that was started 15 years ago to increase the representation of women in key positions to 50 percent is now at 45 percent and continues with an emphasis on executive committees. An announcement about the group’s commitment to pay equity and salary by 2025 will soon be revealed publicly. A global mentoring network to further career growth and mobility is being set up.
Another goal is to increase the number of employees who are living with a disability to 5 percent from 2 percent. And in North America, the goal of having people of color comprise 30 percent of those in leadership positions has been achieved this year, Moungar said.
Voices of Inclusion Week involves workshops, master classes and conferences planned for Fendi, Make U for Ever, Sephora, Benefit Cosmetics, Acqua di Parma, LVMH China and LVMH Italy. Expanded D&I training with an emphasis on unconscious bias is also happening at Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Kenzo, Bulgari and Loro Piana. Meanwhile, Veuve Clicquot’s 50-year history of supporting female entrepreneurs through its Bold initiative will be trumpeted. Belmont is amplifying its recent “Traveling with Pride.” To tie in to the inclusion week, LVMH staged a immersive pop-up experience at Art Basel Miami featuring such diverse artists as Cruise Bogle.
While D&I has been part of LVMH’s DNA for a long time, Moungar noted, “It’s important to speak up in today’s world to say that we really care about this and everybody being included.”
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