Vuitton, Louis.
French luggage and accessory firm
Founded by Louis Vuitton in Paris, 1854. Vuitton born in 1811. Vuitton arrived in Paris at age 16,
apprenticed to several luggage makers; began designing flat luggage for use on new railways,
diverging from traditional iron hooped trunks used on horse-drawn coaches.
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Company has kept
abreast of changes in travelling habits, with innovative designs for new methods of transport,
from the railway to steamers, the motor car, and the airplane. Designs range from water tight
trunks to semi-rigid, expanding suitcases.
Address: Grande Arche de la D6fense, Cedex 41, 92044 Paris, France. Died in 1892.
The French firm of Louis Vuitton has been making prestigious luggage since the middle
of the 19th century. The firm's eponymous founder, Louis Vuitton, first came to Paris
in 1837, in the year in which stage and mail coach travel was to be transformed by the
opening of the first railway line in France, from Paris to St Germain, to passenger traffic.
Louis Vuitton became an apprentice layetier, or luggage packer, to the prominent households
of Paris at a time when journeys could take many months and require endless changes of wardrobe.
He established such a reputation in this work that he was appointed by the Emperor of France,
Napoleon III, as Layetier to his wife, the Empress Eugenie. Vuitton thus acquired expert
knowledge of what made a good travelling case and started to design luggage, opening his
workshops to the general public in 1854 to provide luggage suitable for a new age of travel.
Vuitton designed the first flat trunks that could be easily stacked in railway carriages and in
the holds of ocean liners. Made of wood and covered in a new distinctive canvas called
"Trianon Grey," this trunk superseded the dome-shaped, cumbersome trunks originally designed
for the stage coach.
So successful and prestigious did this luggage become that other trunk makers began to copy
Louis Vuitton's style and designs, a problem that still has to be dealt with over a century later.
In 1876 Louis Vuitton responded to the imitators by changing the "Trianon Grey" canvas to a striped
design in beige and brown. However, the problem persisted and in 1888, Louis Vuitton adopted
another canvas: a checkerboard pattern with the words "Marque deposee Louis Vuitton" interwoven
through the material. When George Vuitton took over the family firm on his father's death in 1892,
imitation of the company's products was still a major problem, and four years later he designed
and took out worldwide patents on the now legendary Louis Vuitton canvas, which featured his
father's initials against background motifs of stars and flowers. This innovative design had
the effect of stopping all imitations until the 1960s, when counterfeiting became a serious problem.
Louis Vuitton takes a serious view of all counterfeiting and employs a team of' lawyers and special
investigation agencies to actively pursue offenders through law courts all over the world. The
company allocates half of its communications budget to counteracting piracy. Louis Vuitton
luggage and travel accessories can only be bought in a Louis Vuitton shop, unless sold as antiques.
Methods of manufacture have not changed since the 19th century. Suitcases are still made by hand;
the craftsmen line up the leather and canvas, tapping in the tiny nails one by one and securing
the five-lever solid pick-proof brass locks with an individual hand-made key, designed to allow the
traveller to have only one key for all his or her luggage. The wooden frames of each trunk are made
of 30-year-old poplar that has been allowed to dry for at least four years. Each trunk has a serial
number and can take up to 60 hours to make, and a suitcase as many as 15.
Although the luggage collection has always offered extensive choice, Louis Vuitton has been
creating special made-to-order hard- sided luggage since 1854. The Congo explorer Pierre Savorgnan
de Brazza (1852-1905) commissioned a combined trunk and bed from the company, and in 1936 for the
American conductor Leopold Stokowski's travels, Gaston Vuitton designed a travelling secretaire,
measuring a mere 94x45x41 cm when closed. When opened, this extraordinary design reveals two
shelves for books, three drawers for documents and musical scores, and a vertical compartment to
store a typewriter. The gate-legged table which completes the in-stant workstation folds into the door.
Today over 50 Louis Vuitton shops in the major cities of Europe, America, and the Far East
continue to supply prestigious luggage, incorporating high-performance materials developed for
the advanced technologies of aeronautics and space, with the traditional expertise which has
distinguished its products since the 19th century.
-Doreen Ehrlich
Extract from “Contemporary Fashion”, written by Richard Martin. Detroit: St. James Press, 1995.
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