Interactive Research

The Top 10 Most Valuable Luxury Brands in the World

Author: Frank Holmes

Date Posted: January 21, 2022 Read time: 7 min

The Top 10 Most Valuable Luxury Brands in the World

Every year since 2006, brand equity firm BrandZ has released its Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report. Using its own valuation methodology, BrandZ ranks global brands based on their dollar contribution to the overall business value of their parent company.
The report for 2020 was released in June, with Amazon taking the top spot for the second year in a row. The online retailer’s brand was valued at an incredible $415.9 billion, an increase of 32 percent from last year.
We were curious to see which luxury brands made the list. In the slides that follow, we highlight in descending order the 10 most valuable luxury brands in the world. Can you guess which ranks as number one?

10. Prada

Country: Italy
Brand Value 2020: $3.06B

Before the devil wore Prada, the Italian royal family did. In 1913, the very first Prada store opened in Milan, Italy, selling handbags, travel trunks, jewelry and other fine goods. Women’s footwear wouldn’t be introduced until 1979, clothing until 1988. The publicly traded company’s current CEO, Patrizio Bertelli, insists that despite the coronavirus, Prada has “seen a fast and sustained return to consumer spending” in Asia and particularly China, with sales growing at a double-digit rate.

9. Burberry

Country: U.K.
Brand Value 2020: $3.85B

Burberry, the iconic British fashion house and inventor of the tough, waterproof gabardine material, was established in 1856 when Thomas Burberry was just 21 years old. Originally offering outdoors attire, the company has since expanded into luxury clothing, worn by everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Barack Obama to Beyoncé. Burberry trades in London and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

8. Yves Saint Laurent

Country: France
Brand Value 2020: $4.0B
Once an apprentice to French designer Christian Dior (you’ll hear more about him later!), Yves Saint Laurent cofounded the eponymous fashion house in 1961, selling men’s and women’s ready-to-wear apparel. Early on, the brand was known for contributing to the beatnik look and popularizing tuxedo suits for women. Since 1999, Saint Laurent has been owned by international luxury goods group Kering, itself a constituent of the French CAC 40 Index.

7. Christian Dior

7.Christian Dior

Country: France
Brand Value 2020: $5.12B
In 1947, one year after opening his haute couture fashion house in Paris, Christian Dior introduced the world to what was called the “New Look,” a then-radically feminine aesthetic featuring tight-fitting jackets, petite waists and full skirts. Commonly known today as Dior, the company retails everything from leather goods to jewelry to fragrances to makeup and skincare products. Dior was acquired by fashion giant LVMH in 2017 in a $13.1 billion deal, but shares are still floated on France’s Euronext Paris securities market.

6. Cartier

Country: France
Brand Value 2020: $5.21B
It was during the highly volatile period of the 1848 French Revolution that a young Parisian watchmaker named Louis-François Cartier bought his master’s small workshop. A decade later, Cartier opened his first boutique, selling not just timepieces but also high-end jewelry. The brand continued to be managed by Louis-François’ son and then grandsons, one of whom, Pierre, expanded the company by establishing a U.S. headquarters on New York City’s famous Fifth Avenue in 1917. Today Cartier is owned by Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company Compagnie Financière Richemont.

5. Rolex

Country: Switzerland
Brand Value 2020: $7.43B
The second watchmaker to appear on the list, Rolex was founded in London by Hans Wilsdorf, then 24. He invented the name ROLEX because he thought it would not only be easy to pronounce in any language but also look good on timepieces. The innovative company was first to come out with a waterproof wristwatch and, in 1931, the first self-winding watch. By the 1950s, it had started designing timepieces for professional activities such as aviation, deep-sea diving and more. The Geneva-based company is owned by the private Hans Wilsdorf Foundation.

4. Gucci

Country: Italy
Brand Value 2020: $27.24B
With Gucci, we make a huge leap from luxury brands valued under $10 billion to those valued above $25 billion. Founded in 1920 in Florence, Italy, Gucci specialized in leather goods and accessories before expanding into ready-to-wear apparel, fragrances and more. By the 1990s, the brand began to show its age. It was a young Texas-born designer named Tom Ford who is credited with breathing new life into Gucci as its creative director. Like Saint Laurent (for whom Ford also worked), Gucci is today owned by Kering.

3. Hermès

Country: France
Brand Value 2020: $33.01B
As the oldest brand on this list, Hermès made its debut in Paris in 1837 as a saddlery and harness workshop, serving European noblemen and women. It wouldn’t be for another 100 years that the company would introduce its first non-equestrian item—a square silk scarf. Today Hermès is one of the of the most iconic high-fashion brands on earth, retailing leather goods as well as jewelry, watches, ready-to-wear apparel, fragrances and more. In 2019, one of its purses—made from rare white crocodile and palladium—auctioned at Christie’s Hong Kong for an astonishing $242,000.

2. Chanel

Country: France
Brand Value 2020: $36.12B
For many people around the world, even those who know little to nothing about this industry, the name Coco Chanel is synonymous with luxury. Born Gabrielle Chanel, the young fashion designer opened her first shop in Paris in 1910, creating hats that became popular with the most famous French actresses of the time. But things really blew up when she released, in 1921, her signature Chanel N°5—still the world’s most iconic fragrance. In its 2019 financial report, the privately-owned Chanel reported $12.3 billion in global sales and $2.2 billion in free cash flow, an incredible 85 percent increase from the previous year. Despite pandemic-related challenges, the company still expects to turn a profit in 2020.

1. Louis Vuitton

Country: France
Brand Value 2020: $52.00B
The world’s most valuable luxury brand, according to BrandZ, belongs to Paris-based Louis Vuitton, valued at $52 billion, an increase of 10 percent from last year. Louis Vuitton founded the company in 1854 primarily as a maker of travel trunks. Its trunks were lightweight, airtight and, unlike others at the time, had flat tops for easy stackability. In 1886, the company patented a tumbler lock system for its luggage so effective that Harry Houdini himself was said to be unable to pick it. Like most other brands on this list, Louis Vuitton, or LV, is today known for much more than its original goods, offering ready-to-wear, shoes, handbags, jewelry and fragrances. LV is owned by the mega luxury conglomerate LVMH, which did $60 billion in sales in 2019. The company’s CEO and chairman, Bernard Arnault, is the world’s third-richest person behind Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

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Source: BrandZ, Kantar, Bloomberg, U.S. Global Investors