Like the late, great Karl Lagerfeld, one of his mentors, Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Fashion Group, has a gift for trenchant quotes that can take your breath away.
Asked to articulate his approach to mentorship, he replied: “It’s not about replicating yourself; it’s about the other person — what makes that person authentic.
“It’s all about being yourself, and knowing how to deal with making decisions at the end of the day,” he explained. “You can ask for opinions, you can ask for help, you can ask for studies, you can ask for analysis — many things to help you make that decision. But at the end of the day, you’re alone when you make that decision.”
At an event in New York City Monday night, the Fashion Scholarship Fund will honor Burke, who mentored the late Virgil Abloh and teamed with the American designer to raise $25.3 million for his namesake Post-Modern Scholarship Fund.
During the event, more than $1.4 million in scholarships will be awarded to 130 FSF scholars, including this year’s Virgil Abloh Post-Modern Scholarship Fund Scholars.
Virgil Abloh
Lexie Moreland/WWD
Paloma Elsesser, a plus-size model and body-positivity advocate, will be the host of the cocktail event, which will also recognize Tracee Ellis Ross, an actress and CEO and founder of Pattern Beauty, and Pete Nordstrom, president and chief brand officer of Nordstrom Inc.
All three honorees are being recognized for their long-standing commitment to supporting and fostering the next generation of fashion talent, and for advocating for diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry.
In an interview with WWD, Burke elaborated on the crucial role of mentorship for fashion’s creative and business leaders — and also recounted the backstory of the record-breaking sneaker auction he and Abloh cooked up.
Designed by Abloh in collaboration with Nike, 200 pairs of Air Force 1 sneakers came housed in Louis Vuitton pilot cases in monogram-embossed orange leather, with 3D tags in orange leather with a white swoosh on top.
The Louis Vuitton and Nike “Air Force 1” by Virgil Abloh and pilot case.
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Burke and Abloh engineered the auction for maximum returns, deliberately restricting popular shoe sizes to make the sneakers rarer and stoke bidding among rabid collectors in search of “verticals.”
Burke explained that fervent collectors of vintage Champagnes, for example, often seek bottles from multiple years. Likewise, serious sneakerheads snap up complete size ranges of coveted models, typically displaying the boxes or shoes in a vertical stack, biggest to smallest.
“Sotheby’s had never seen that many new clients on any of their sites — ever. It was the highest recruiting sales event in their history, all products combined,” Burke enthused.
The auction house reeled in eight times the pre-event high estimate of $3 million. Every penny went to Abloh’s scholarship fund as Vuitton, Nike and Sotheby’s donated everything and waived all fees.
The project, one of the last ones Burke and Abloh worked on before his passing at the age of 41 in November 2021, was to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Vuitton, whose family packing and trunk-making business would ultimately become the world’s biggest luxury fashion and leather goods brand.
Burke has mentored many artistic directors and CEOs during his long, celebrated career at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, leading such brands as Fendi, Bulgari and Louis Vuitton. He has probably been most closely linked with Abloh, Lagerfeld and Nicolas Ghesquière, who just logged a decade as creative director of women’s collections at Vuitton.
After a stellar 10-year tenure as Vuitton’s chairman and CEO, Burke in February took over from Sidney Toledano as head of LVMH Fashion Group, a division that comprises Celine, Loewe, Fendi, Givenchy, Kenzo, Marc Jacobs, Pucci, Stella McCartney, Patou and Off-White.
Asked to identify the key mentors of his storied career, Burke cited three: LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault for “strategic thinking,” the late Michel Lefebvre of French real estate firm Ferinel for leadership, and Lagerfeld on how to “live a life influenced by aesthetics.”
Lefebvre taught Burke about “leading people, not managing people,” for example. “Creatives have to lead their studios; managers have to lead their organizations.”
And in Burke’s view, the spectrum of personalities can be broad, but the key to being an effective leader is being true to yourself.
“You can be a hermit or a popular hero, or anything in between,” he said. “True leadership is not about imitating somebody else. True leadership is being true to yourself, and yet aiming for the best for your organization. Your style has to be yours. If you’re not authentic, you will not have trust, and if you don’t have trust, people will not follow you. So it’s truly getting to know who you are.”
According to Burke, what’s particular about mentorships in fashion is that they must stretch over a long period.
“It can take decades,” he said. “It’s weird because on the one hand, fashion is extremely quick, and by definition, it’s ever changing. And yet your success can only be measured over decades.”
Abloh’s namesake scholarship fund was created through a partnership with the Fashion Scholarship Fund to further the education of academically promising students of Black, African American or African descent.
Established in 1937, the Fashion Scholarship Fund has given more scholarships to underrepresented students the past five years, with the number of scholars of color rising from 22 percent to 62 percent. Those who demonstrate financial need have increased from 11 percent to 31 percent, and those who are first-generation college students have increased from 4 percent to 15 percent.
All of the students receiving scholarships will receive from $5,000 to $25,000.
This year’s event will be held at The Glasshouse, as reported. Filmmaker Spike Lee is to hand the award to Burke.