The luxury shopping charade
Two major updates about Dark Luxury investigations
An update on our Selfridges story
Our investigation into organised crime in London department stores has been one of Dark Luxury’s most-read stories since we launched in December. Over 7,000 of you have read the story about a loaded gun in Selfridges, dozens have signed up to receive our emails, and many of you signed up for paid subscriptions after we published the story. Welcome.
Your support for Dark Luxury and our work has resulted in a wave of arrests in and around Selfridges over the last week, and an increased presence of plain-clothed police officers outside the store, according to our sources. Police are targeting the fraudsters and pickpockets who are cooperating to steal from customers and the store, behaviour which we revealed for the first time in our story. One source says they have “never been this busy,” thanks to Dark Luxury’s story.
Selfridges has now responded to Dark Luxury reporter John Simpson and our request for comment, which we’ve added to the story. They said the safety of customers and team members is their utmost priority and they do not tolerate criminal activity in their stores.
A belated welcome to new Dark Luxury subscribers from Vogue, GQ, Glitz.Paris, Hermès, Chanel, members of the creative community who work for Gucci Beauty and Burberry Beauty, PR people at firms which represent Selfridges, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and many other brands, an AI-powered authentication platform, University College London, two fine jewellery brands, a luxury shopfitter, and, apparently, a member of the British aristocracy. Readers and subscribers, you’re in good company. What a great dinner party we could put together (become an annual subscriber and you’ll get an invite.)
The Louis Vuitton shopping charade
Today’s newsletter is the first part in a series of follow-ups to another of our most-read stories, where we revealed how Chinese gangs are tricking Louis Vuitton staff and cheating EU taxpayers to secure handbags for the Chinese grey market.
Read that story first if you haven’t already, because it seems that some very strange things are going on at the Barcelona Louis Vuitton store, according to store insiders. We’ll start with what we’re learned about the huge scale of the Chinese gang activity.
Part one: Louis Vuitton insiders reveal the scale of gang activity in the store
Louis Vuitton’s press department did not reply to our request for comment on our story about Chinese gangs operating in and around their stores, but they clearly read it. Our article was mentioned in daily briefings and circulated among colleagues in early February, according to a member of staff at the Paseo de Gracia store who requested anonymity. As a result, staff were given new instructions for how to handle customers.
After Dark Luxury’s investigation, the deputy manager of the store told staff that from now on they were required to check every “Chinese [person] who enters the store with photos of handbags on the mobile to buy or want to pay in cash”, according to a source who works at the store.
Alma Attias, 45, a former member of staff at the Louis Vuitton store, said this directive is “absolutely ridiculous.” (We’ll have more on Alma’s story in part two and three, in future newsletters.) She worked at the store between 17 November 2022 and 28 June 2023. She said “practically all of the customers” at the Paseo de Gracia store are Chinese customers, and many of them are operating for – or under the instructions of – Chinese gangs like the ones described in our story.
“If it were not for these ‘customers’ they would sell nothing”, Attias said. If staff followed the instructions, they would be calling managers “every five seconds”, she said.
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