LVMH the holding company that has the ownership of the Louis Vuitton label, the most valuable fashion brand of 2013 according to Forbes, has confirmed the imminent exit of Marc Jacobs as Creative Director. LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault and Marc Jacobs himself announced the latter's depature from Louis Vuitton on the final morning of this season’s Paris Fashion Week.

Jacobs’s contract is set to run out in 2014, and the 50-year-old designer, who has been with the brand since 1997, will not be having it renewed.

It is thought that he will focus, along with business partner Robert Duffy, on an IPO for his own multi-million dollar Marc Jacobs brand, which should occur within the next three years.