Known for his uncompromising and perfectionist nature, Ghesquière may not have seemed like the obvious choice to replace Marc Jacobs at Vuitton, and yet, says Michael Burke, C.E.O. of Vuitton, "There was only Nicolas. We are under an obligation of maintaining a standard of boldness after the brilliant job that Marc Jacobs did. We had to have somebody as great as Nicolas. We couldn't go into it saying, We're going to play it safe." Adds Delphine Arnault, daughter of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and an executive vice president at Vuitton, "We like adventures."