Typically, Carcelle won't talk or, heaven forfend, boast about himself and his accomplishments, only the business. For the record, he's married with five children, lives in Paris, is a passionate ocean-racing sailor, was educated at the elite Polytechnique in Paris, obtained an MBA from Insead, and Gucci bagsworked for Descamps household textiles before joining LVMH as strategy director in 1989 and taking over the running of Louis Vuitton in 1990. That's pretty much all he will say.

Back to Louis Vuitton. e're never on sale,?says Carcelle. ll the rest discount. Us, never. We sell only in our own stores. All our stores are operated by us and no one else.?It's straightforward, he says: hen a customer invests in one of our products they don't expect to see it discounted three weeks later, so we don't do it. We don't issue licences, we don't have distribution agreements. We've 448 stores.

We're the biggest luxury goods brand in the world and the most exclusive. We provide perfect protection LV Handbagsfor our customers ?the only way they can be sure they're buying a genuine Louis Vuitton product is if they buy it within one of our stores. If they buy outside, it's a fake.

To that end, he wishes society would do more to clampdown on counterfeiting. He tells how he was on holiday, sailing in Turkey, and went to the local market, found it was full of bogus Louis Vuitton bags and got on to headquarters in Paris.
e act wherever we find faking nywhere in the world, we will go after the people responsible. To be fair, globally, governments are getting stronger and stronger in their pursuit of the forgers. Often, it's not the government, though, but the local police chief who isn't interested. But you can't claim a counterfeited product doesn't matter when it's been made by child labour and the criminal organisation behind it is also into drugs, prostitution and worse

For once, the understated Carcelle can't hide his annoyance. e live in a world that tries to protect people mlv bagsore and more but at the same time we're tolerating products that are often made by children working in terrible conditions.

We've seen riots in Greece ?the company's store in the centre of Athens had to close for a while ?and ever since the banking collapse began, the worldwide anti-rich mood has been growing. Some might suggest that now is hardly the best time to be launching such a store? Carcelle shrugs a Gallic shrug. e're luxury but we're not known for over-the-top opulence. We're known for craftsmanship, history and lasting for ever. If you buy a Louis Vuitton bag you're buying an object that will last 20 years and more. You will still be in love with it then.?He smiles. the zip goes, we will replace it. You will still be as attached to it as the day you bought it ?perhaps even more so