I wonder what it is with sons of carpenters. One launches an entire institution of religion and the other, saves us from bad travel experiences and gives us the gift of luxurious, resilient travel bags.
The name Louis Vuitton evokes in me, not the large conglomerate fashion house with Marc Jacobs as artistic director of the empire, but rather the humble beginnings of the son of a carpenter who at age 14, in 1835, packed his bags in Anchay, Jura where he was born in France, and headed for Paris – on foot. He took odd jobs along the way to pay for food and lodging, all this while, perfecting his carpentry skills and expanding his knowledge on various types of wood.
400 km further away and one year later, Louis arrived in Paris to find a flourishing haute couture culture, where lavish and elaborate dressing was all the rage. It was here that he learnt to pack such elaborate outfits to perfection. And it was his dress packing skills and not foremost his carpentry skills that attracted the attention of Empress Eugénie. He became her favourite packer.
It was not long before he combined his dress packing skills with his carpentry skills to produce the first flat, stackable trunk for transportation. These stable and solid trunks were covered with grey Trianon canvas.
His inventiveness, devotion to detail, quality and luxury was what assured his success. And it is this quest for perfection, of combining great design with function / durability and luxury that runs through Louis Vuitton’s latest creations today.
And thus with Louis Vuitton, came the evolution of modern travel. The “wardrobe trunk” was designed in 1875 in order to store clothing for travel, without wrinkling the clothes.
It was the son of Louis Vuitton, Georges Vuitton who in 1890, invented a special lock with 5 pick-proof tumblers. In 1894, after two years of research and study, Georges Vuitton published an illustrated book entitled Le Voyage. His efforts won him the title of Officer in the Académìe in 1896.
Already back in the early 1900s, Louis Vuitton fakes were abound on the market. In order to distinguish his work from the counterfeits, Georges Vuitton invented the durable monogram canvas with the intertwined initials of Louis Vuitton. One way of distinguishing a modern fake is still the intertwined initials of Louis Vuitton, where the V is placed upon the L in such a manner that any mm off in either direction would tell that the product is counterfeit.
The monogram pattern today is one that reflects the heritage of the craftsmanship established in Asnières in 1860s. Georges Vuitton, together with his team of sixty highly skilled craftsman, created elegant, resistant and luxurious travel luggage that took Louis Vuitton to a global sensation. Adventurous and determined as he was, Georges Vuitton took his luggages across the Algerian and Tunisian desserts to test the durability of his creations, on horseback.
Georges’ son, Gaston Louis Vuitton, who had been involved in his father’s work from early on in life, then brought the organization to its modernity. Observing that his clients were interested in a more modern, lightweight and compact travelling bag, Gaston Louis Vuitton thus invented the Keepall bag in 1924. This bag was large enough to pack a weekend’s stay of clothes or sporting items, and it could be folded and placed at the bottom of a suitcase as an overnight bag when unused.
The Keepall.
Photo: Louis Vuitton
Influenced by style, design and functionality, Gaston Louis Vuitton had a coating added to the monogram canvas in 1959, that gave it suppleness and durability. Until then, the monogram canvas was reserved for more rigid and formal constructs. With this additional characteristic, the Steamer bag and the Keepall bag became a success as travel bags.
The Steamer bag
Work of Andrée Putman with the “Steamer bag” © Mazen Saggar
In 1987, Louis Vuitton and Moet-Hennessey merged to form LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton. The group today continues to own the Louis Vuitton company and brand.
In 1998, Louis Vuitton brings in Marc Jacobs, who designed the Monogram Vernis line. But Patrick Louis Vuitton, the fifth generation of the Vuitton family today, continues to design for special orders.
I swear I’m NOT stalking Louis Vuitton …
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