in London. In early 2011, Louis Vuitton hired Kim Jones as its "Men Ready-to-Wear Studio and Style Director". He became the lead designer of menswear while working under the company-wide artistic directorship of Marc Jacobs. On 17 September 2011, the company opened its Louis Vuitton Island Maison at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. 2012 to present , the company hired Darren Spaziani to lead its accessory collection. On 4 November 2013, the company confirmed that Nicolas Ghesquière had been hired to replace Marc Jacobs as artistic director of women's collections. Ghesquière's first line for the company was shown in Paris in March 2014. On 7 April 2014, Edouard Schneider became the head of press and public relations at Louis Vuitton under Frédéric Winckler, who is Vuitton's communications and events director. On 26 March 2018, Virgil Abloh was named artistic director of men's wear, replacing Kim Jones who had departed for Dior—he was the label's first African-American artistic director and one of few black designers of a major European fashion house. His debut show was held at the 2018 Paris Men's Fashion Week and staged in the historical Palais-Royal gardens' courtyard. On 28 November 2021, Abloh died of cardiac angiosarcoma, which he had been battling privately for two years prior. LV was in the first place in the BrandZ's top 10 most valuable luxury brands in 2019, with a worth of $47.2 billion. On 15 January 2020, the company acquired the Sewelô diamond, which is the third-largest rough diamond ever found in history, from Lucara Diamond who mined it from their mine in Botswana. In March 2022, LVMH announced closure of its 120+ stores in Russia, "given the current circumstances in the region," due to the Russo-Ukrainian War. An LVMH spokesperson stated the company would continue to pay salary and benefits to its 3,500 employees in Russia. On 14 February 2023, Pharrell Williams was named artistic director of men's wear. Brand and intellectual property The Louis Vuitton brand and the LV monogram are among the world's most valuable brands. According to a Millward Brown 2010 study, Louis Vuitton was then the world's 19th most valuable brand, and was estimated to be worth over US$19 billion. For six consecutive years, Louis Vuitton was number one of the 10 most powerful brands list published by the Millward Brown Optimor's 2011 BrandZ study with value of $24.3 billion. It was more than double the value