Donald Trump Visits Louis Vuitton’s Texas Facility Afterwards Gets Criticized By Nicolas Ghesquiere

On Thursday Donald Trump was invited by LVMH CEO and chairman Bernard Arnault to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the new Louis Vuitton Factory in Alvarado, Texas.

The creative director of Louis Vuitton’s womenswear Nicolas Ghesquiere, took to Instagram to criticize Trump after the President’s visit to the new facility. Here is the post Ghesquiere shared with the world.

View this post on Instagram

Standing against any political action. I am a fashion designer refusing this association #trumpisajoke #homophobia

A post shared by @ nicolasghesquiere on Oct 19, 2019 at 8:33pm PDT

Transgender model Teddy Quinlivan responded in the comments section with “BRAVO. Thank you for standing on the right side of history.” The comments section has now been disabled to prevent others from speaking or typing how they feel. Ghesquiere’s post has received over 9,500 likes, support is flowing in from industry figure heads such as the former editor-in-chief of Elle U.K. Anne-Marie Curtis, Louis Vuitton’s accessories creative director Camille Miceli and Alastair McKimm who is the editor-in-chief of i-D magazine.

Louis Vuitton’s new French luxury house is a 100,000-square-foot factory dedicated to crafting leather and canvas bags. Local residents who work at the new production facility will be paid $13 USD an hour, to stitch bags “Made in USA” that will be sold for $1,200 USD.

Traditionally bags like these are handcrafted in France by artisans known as “petites mains.” In order to meet the increasing demand the brand has had to bump up production so they can execute at a higher level. Louis V has 30 manufacturing centers 12 of those are outside of France. Training centers opened two years ago in Texas to recruit new employees. It has been reported by a few Texas workers that the working conditions are poor and discrimination has been demonstrated towards women and Hispanic employees, these statements are according to The Wall Street Journal.

Louis Vuitton has not only increased its production rate, but they have also skirted around any potential trade quarrels between Europe and the U.S. recently Trump’s administration have placed tariffs on certain European goods.

As of now the Texas factory is using European leather for its bags, they have not ruled out the possibility of switching to leather from American cattle down the line. The Texas compound may also produce leather boots alongside the bags if things work out as planned.

Watch the whole ceremony here and also a brief video of Trump speaking to reporters from Time.

(Image is courtesy of Hypebeast, Video is courtesy of YouTube, PBS, and Time the source Hypebeast)