5 Takeaways From Luxury’s Q4 Earnings

US brands performed well, particularly Ralph Lauren, which posted sales up 10% to $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2026, and Tapestry, whose sales were up 14% turbocharged by Coach (up 25%).

In the US, luxury brands are flexing their retail muscles. Dior opened a Rodeo Drive store in LA with a restaurant by three-Michelin-star chef Dominique Crenn in the fall. Moncler opened a second store dedicated to Moncler Grenoble in Aspen, after launching its first dedicated store in Saint Moritz in December 2023, and will open a Fifth Avenue flagship in New York this year. Hermès confirmed plans to open a bigger flagship on Rodeo Drive.

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The luxury brand’s dedicated ski collection hosted a big show and party on Saturday in the Colorado ski town to celebrate its newest store opening. It underscores a serious investment in the US market.

“Our Rodeo Drive store is becoming too small,” Dumas said. “So we’ve made a significant purchase for the future that will eventually allow us to have a project we consider fantastic. We currently have tenants, so whether Rodeo Drive will be a project for the seventh generation or for us — we’ll see — but the idea is to think long term. We don’t necessarily want to have more stores, but to have better ones.”

Come May, a number of luxury houses are staging their resort 2027 shows Stateside.

“One thing to keep an eye on is the stock market,” said Kering’s de Meo. “A lot of Americans have savings held ‌in stocks. So if the market holds up well, it will keep driving growth in our sector. If there’s a crash — say an AI bubble — we’ll talk again. But for now, it’s looking good.”

The gap begins to narrow

“The K-shaped economy — where the top end of the economy grows, but the lower end lags as inequalities widen — is still a theme in Q4,” Morgan Stanley managing director Édouard Aubin said in January, before the earnings season commenced. “Because of the large wealth effect, the brands positioned at the top of the luxury pyramid are outperforming, but I think that the gap will narrow slightly.”

It has indeed narrowed. “The fourth quarter has continued to provide highly polarized results, but the distance in organic growth performance has narrowed to 24% points,” Solca says. He notes that the gap was 38% points a year earlier. (In Q4 2024, Richemont’s jewelry maisons were up 14% and Gucci was down 24%).

High-end brands such as Hermès, Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli and Cartier are still defying the odds, buoyed by the resilience of ultra-wealthy consumers. “At Loro Piana, we have only one problem: slowing down growth,” Arnault said. But labels with middle-income customers are seeing some early signs of recovery.

“The likes of Burberry, Gucci, and Ferragamo are gaining momentum,” says Charles-Louis Scotti, head of luxury goods equity research at Kepler Cheuvreux. Burberry’s comparable retail sales grew 3% to £665 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (ended December 27, 2025). After a sluggish 2025, Ferragamo saw an improvement in Q4 when sales were down 2% to €282 million, including a 6.3% rise in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel.

Jewelry continues to shine, as expected

At LVMH’s watches and jewelry division, sales were up 8%, while sales at Hermès’s “other sectors”, which includes jewelry, were up 12.9%. Sales at the Richemont jewelry maisons, including Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, were up 14% in the quarter, exceeding expectations. Despite the beat, the Richemont share slipped after the publication of the earnings, as investors saw jewelry strength as a given. Kering doesn’t break down the growth rate of its jewelry brands, but said its respective business generated an approximate €1 billion in 2025. To reinforce its industrial capabilities in the category, Kering acquired jewelry manufacturer Raselli Franco in December 2025. De Meo sees big potential as he seeks to reduce the group’s dependence on the fashion cycle.