Louis Vuitton Malletier SAS is a French luxury fashion house, one of the world’s leading international fashion houses and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton.1 The label’s fames LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags, leather goods, shoes, perfumes, watches, jewelery, accessories, sunglasses, and books.
[Louis Vuitton merged with Moet Hennessy in 1987.]
Ironically, the signature Monogram canvas was created to prevent counterfeiting.
Louis Vuitton is one of the most counterfeited brands in the fashion world due to its image as a status symbol.
For six consecutive years (2006–2012), Louis Vuitton was named the world’s most valuable luxury brand. The company operates in 50 countries with more than 460 stores worldwide. LVMH controls around 60 subsidiaries that manage 75 luxury brands and is extremely popular in France, Japan, and the US. In addition to Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy, LVMH’s portfolio includes Christian Dior, Fendi, Celine, Tiffany & Co., Bulgari, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora. In 2023, LVMH became the first European company to surpass a valuation of $500 billion. Also in 2023, the company was ranked 47th in the Forbes Global 2000.
The Louis Vuitton label was founded by Vuitton in 1854, in Paris. Vuitton had observed that the H J Cave Company (Harriet Jane) Cave made only rounded-top trunks. Vuitton decided to establish his own business “to safely pack the most fragile objects” and to provide “speciality packing for fashion.”
In 1858, Vuitton introduced his flat-topped trunks. Before the introduction of Vuitton’s trunks, rounded-top trunks were used, generally to promote water runoff, and thus could not be stacked. Uniquely, each trunk was equipped with a pick-proof lock – another LV innovation. Many other luggage makers later imitated Vuitton’s style and design.2
“Every object, every piece of luggage Louis invented was to make travel possible and was very focused. It was about a lifestyle, an art of travel,” curator Olivier Saillard stated.3
Founder Louis Vuitton was born in 1821. When he died In 1892, the company’s management passed to his son.
After the death of his father, Georges Vuitton began a campaign to build the company into a worldwide corporation, exhibiting the company’s products at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Georges was fascinated by Japanese motifs. Japanese influences were making their mark in Europe. Graphic symbols, including quatrefoils and flowers (as well as the LV monogram), were based on using Japanese family crests. Gaston-Louis Vuitto, amassed a large collection of Japanese sword guards. Some of the motifs found on the trunks were inspired by these.4 The patents later proved to be successful in stopping counterfeiting.
Many other luggage makers later imitated Vuitton’s style and design
By 1913, the Louis Vuitton Building opened on the Champs-Elysees. It was the largest travel-goods store in the world at the time. Stores also opened in New York, Bombay, Washington, London, Alexandria and Buenos Aires as World War I began.
In 1936 Georges Vuitton died, and his son, Gaston-Louis Vuitton, assumed control of the company.
During World War II, Louis Vuitton collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France. Stephanie Bonvicini writes that members of the Vuitton family actively aided the Vichy government led by Marshal Phillipe Petain and increased their wealth from their business affairs with the Germans.5
Caroline Babulle, a spokeswoman for Fayard said: “They have not contested anything in the book, but they are trying to bury it by pretending it doesn’t exist.” Responding to
Bovincini’s book’s release in 2004, a spokesman for Louis Vuitton said, “This is ancient history. Her book covers a period when it was family-run and long before it became part of LVMH. We are diverse, tolerant and all the things a modern company should be.”
Ernest Hemingway’s 1923 Library Trunk, which, after the writer’s death, was found in the basement of The Ritz Paris, together with the long-lost manuscript of A Moveable Feast, his posthumous masterpiece.
By 1989, Louis Vuitton came to operate 130 stores worldwide.
In 1997, Louis Vuitton made Marc Jacobs its Artistic Director. In 2004, Louis Vuitton celebrated its 150th anniversary. The brand also inaugurated stores in New York City on Fifth Avenue, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Cancun and Johannesburg.
In 2010, Louis Vuitton opened what is described as their most luxurious store in London.
Valentines’ Day, 2023, Pharrell Williams was named creative director of men’s wear.
“It’s a trunk for life,” Paul Louis Vuitton (sixth generation) states.
Nicolas Ghesquière has been the Artistic Director of Women’s Collections for The Maison of Louis Vuitton since 2013,6 replacing Marc Jacobs. “Let’s open one box. What can we imagine’s inside, what books wold be inside? What color? What memories of the person? reflects Ghesquière.
- Martin, Richard (1995). Contemporary fashion. Guatemala: St. James Press. p. 750. ↩︎
- https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/a42025513/louis-vuitton-trunk/ ↩︎
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230713010351/https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/travel/louis-vuitton-tokyo-exhibition-volez-voguez-voyagez ↩︎
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230713010351/https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/travel/louis-vuitton-tokyo-exhibition-volez-voguez-voyagez ↩︎
- “Fayard | Editions Fayard”. www.fayard.fr. Retrieved: August 25, 2021.
↩︎ - At a young age Ghesquière announced at that he wanted to be a designer. By age 12, Nicolas was sketching dress designs in his school books, making dresses out of his mother’s curtains, and designing earrings out of his grandmother’s chandelier crystals. With the help of his father, Ghesquière put together a portfolio of drawings and sent it, along with a letter introducing himself, to several designers. The rest is proverbial history ↩︎
