CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault. Photo / AP
Both are billionaires, both are catnip to celebrities and politicians and both are arch-rivals, locked for two decades in an intractable high-fashion feud set to be reignited.
Yes, it's luxury handbags at dawn for French haute couture kingpins Bernard Arnault and Francois-Henri Pinault.
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The two corporate style giants look likely to go head to head again, as each pursues ownership of iconic American jewellery brand Tiffany's, famed for its delicate turquoise boxes and immortalised by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany's, reports the Daily Mail.
Habitually unsmiling Arnault — known as the "Pope of fashion" and a "wolf in cashmere", and friends with everyone from Donald Trump to Tony Blair — this week proposed an £11.3 billion ($22.7b) take-over of Tiffany's.
It sounds a fortune, but Arnault's bid has been described as "stingy" — and, more significantly, leaves the door open for former playboy Pinault, 57, married to movie star Salma Hayek, to get one over on his old rival yet again.
The two fell out in 1999 when they were trying to buy Gucci and have been at loggerheads ever since, each opening museums in Paris so the masses can enjoy their rival art collections, and both making very public donations to the rebuilding of Notre Dame Cathedral.
While they have much in common, Arnault, 70, is stealthy — he is married to a concert pianist and is a workaholic, spending every possible minute at his desk — while Pinault is decidedly showy, courting celebrities by the dozen and even fathering a love child with a supermodel.
So who are these twin titans of luxury — and who will prevail on this big money battleground? Alison Boshoff adds up the balance sheet . . .
Pinault: He loves the celebrity world and is pals with woke but party-hard A-listers such as actor Woody Harrelson, U2 singer Bono, designer Stella McCartney and actress Charlize Theron.
All of them attended his spectacular 2009 wedding to Salma Hayek in Venice.
Pinault spent £17 million on renovating one of the family's museums, the Punta Della Dogana, for the occasion, although the main reception was in the opera house in Venice, also owned by the family. The weekend reputedly cost £2.6m.
Other pals include actors Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne, Jennifer Aniston, Uma Thurman, Thandie Newton and Jared Leto, plus singers Drake and Madonna, and the Beckhams. He is also friends with oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Arnault: Adept at making friends in high places, Arnault was on close terms with the late French President Jacques Chirac.
His daughter, Delphine, is now "besties" with First Lady Brigitte Macron, wife of Emmanuel, and Mme Macron has been kitted out in Louis Vuitton.
Last month, Arnault flew with President Trump in Air Force One to open a Louis Vuitton leatherware workshop in Texas. He was made an honorary knight by the Queen in 2012.
Pinault: His main home is in Paris, base of the Kering business, and he has a vast apartment in the chic 6th arondissement.
He and wife Salma Hayek also have a £12m mansion in Bel Air, California, with seven bedrooms and spectacular views of LA — bought from Frasier star Kelsey Grammer.
Monsieur and Madame, however, are not always to be found at the same address: Hayek moved to stylish Holland Park, West London, with their daughter Valentina four years ago.
(Before this, Pinault had a two-bedroomed £20m house in Kensington.) He travels for "two weeks in four" but Hayek insists they're never separated for long.
Arnault: As well as a house in Paris, he has a mansion in Clairefontaine in the Ile-de-France region at which he weekends.
He also owns a 133-acre island, Indigo, in the Bahamas and is a major investor in the redevelopment of the Balkan country Montenegro.
Pinault: Married twice, he has four children: the eldest, Francois and Mathilde, with first wife Dorothee, to whom he was married from 1996 to 2004.
His third child, son Augie, came along in October 2006, after he had a relationship with supermodel Linda Evangelista — and ushered in a public ding-dong, with a court fight over maintenance.
The supermodel asked the court for a whopping £35,000 a month in support for the child, to pay for nannies and armoured cars. Today, though, Pinault insists that Augie is happily part of the family.
His relationship with Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek has been far more star-crossed: he was introduced to her at a party in Venice in April 2006, they had daughter Valentina in September 2007 and married on Valentine's Day 2009.
The couple recently renewed their vows while on holiday in Bora Bora in the South Pacific.
As romantic as it all sounds, the businessman doesn't seem to have his eye far from the bottom line, even at home. In one interview Hayek said she told Pinault she didn't want to work any more after having their daughter at the age of 41.
He replied: "Oh no, you're going back to work. We're not putting up with some lazy girl in the house. That's not who I married."
Arnault: His life is less chequered than Pinault's. He separated from first wife Anne in 1990.
Second wife Helene Mercier, a concert pianist, was wooed by Arnault playing the piano on one of their early dates.
Four out of his five children work in the family business. Son Antoine, CEO of Berluti, lives with supermodel Natalia Vodianova, while daughter Delphine is also in a senior management role.
In 2013, Arnault transferred the family fortune to Belgium to prevent squabbling among his five children about who should take over after him.
The group will now be run by a trust administered by a former finance minister after Arnault's death.
Pinault: Plays tennis twice a week and boxes. The family owns a football team in Brittany and he is proud of his Breton heritage.
Drives a rather modest Silver Lexus SUV but is a repeated user of private planes and yachts, which are, apparently, always rented.
A fan of Bruce Springsteen and a regular holidaymaker on the French island of St Barthelemy in the Caribbean.
His father Francois, 83, is one of the world's foremost art collectors and owns two museums in Venice. He's set to open a new one in Paris next year, which cost an extraordinary £132m to build.
After the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in April, Pinault announced a gift of £86m to aid rebuilding.
Arnault: A serious art collector, Arnault bought his first painting, Monet's London Bridge, at auction in 1982.
It cost him £200,000, but today it is probably worth more like £20m.
In 2014, he opened the Louis Vuitton Foundation museum to display his collection of artworks in the Bois de Boulogne just outside Paris.
Next year another museum backed by him is to open in the French capital.
After Francois Pinault announced his gift to help rebuild Notre Dame, Arnault said he would donate £172m, double Pinault's sum.
An accomplished pianist, he also enjoys tennis and has been known to pay Wimbledon champion Roger Federer to coach him.
Endlessly ambitious, Arnault said in one interview of his match against Federer: "Obviously I lost 6-0, but I won a point . . . [this year] my goal is to gain two points against Roger Federer."
His superyacht, Symphony, which can comfortably take 16 guests and 27 staff, has a price tag of £100m, while he also owns a Dassault private jet.
Pinault: Chairman and CEO of the Kering Group, comprising Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Gucci and Christie's auction house.
Technically, the empire is owned by his father, Francois, who founded the company, but Francois-Henri has been running it since 2005 and is the CEO and chairman. He is said to be worth £25b.
Arnault: Chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy — the world's largest luxury goods company, which also owns TAG Heuer.
He is Europe's richest person and the third-richest person in the world, said to be worth £79b.
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