21. Birkins & Billions: France's Luxury Industrial Complex

Luxury brands are big business in France. Although most people cannot afford a coveted Birkin bag, a handbag that costs more than some of France’s best-selling compact hatchbacks, or even a bottle of the “mass-market” Moët & Chandon champagne, their owners wield outsized influence over French politics. One notable example is Bernard Arnault, the billionaire CEO of LVMH, who owns the unprofitable and subsidized newspaper Le Parisien, as well as Les Echos and Paris Match. We are joined by Rachel and Nancy to discuss these luxury brands, their labor practices, the polémique around fast fashion, and their contribution to the consumerism they are sometimes said to oppose.