Homeluxury bag → Louis Vuitton, a tim...

Louis Vuitton, a timeless icon with 200 years of history

  1. Mabel Figueruelo

Louis Vuitton celebrates the bicentenary of the birth of its creator, of the man behind the luxury empire that the Maison is today. With 'Louis 200' he builds a bridge between the malletier pioneer and all visionaries who strive for excellence.  Louis Vuitton, un icono atemporal con 200 años de historia  Louis Vuitton, un icono atemporal con 200 años de historia

A Louis Vuitton is automatically recognizable for the perfection of its artisan finishes, for its materials – such as Monogram canvas and textured Epi leather, exclusive to the firm –, its designs with unique and distinctive details, such as the Neverfull bag and Toron handles , hand-sewn… But behind the Maison, behind its unmistakable hallmark, there has always been a man, Louis Vuitton, a manufacturer of trunks and luggage cases who transformed the way people travel, and a bold visionary who became a History of fashion and icon of luxury in the XXI century.

But it all started much earlier, two centuries ago, on August 4, 1821, the day Louis Vuitton was born in Anchay, a small town in the Jura, the son of a humble family of millers. In 1837, at the age of 14, he left his hometown with the intention of settling in Paris. He arrived on foot, after a two-year journey, and began as an apprentice in Monsieur Maréchal's carpentry, specializing in the manufacture of custom boxes, trunks and packaging material. It was a sector in full development in a Paris of horse-drawn carriages, but in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, and that with the first passenger trains and transatlantic liners inaugurated another prosperous sector, that of tourism, then exclusive to high society who traveled with bulky and heavy luggage.

His talent and his extraordinary ability for manual work and handling of tools soon led him to take care of the orders of the most important clients of the workshop, until he was in charge, with little more than 30 years, of the personal items in the transfers of the Empress Eugenia de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III.

The best craftsman in France

 Louis Vuitton, un icono atemporal con 200 años de historia

In 1854, at the age of 33, seasoned in the profession, with an extraordinary reputation and recently married to Clemence-Emilie Parriaux, he set up his own workshop at 4 Rue des Capucines, very close to Place Vendôme. The rest is history, History of fashion, with capital letters.

The young malletier-layetier had become the best craftsman in France and his savoir faire has not abandoned the Maison. Its flat-top trunks and suitcases, lined with water-resistant canvas, its audacious wheeled luggage racks, always with the best materials and extraordinary finishes, became essential for high society who demanded their products in the little free time they had. he left him his job as personal manager of Eugenia de Montijo's baggage. They say that only he and the couturier Charles Frederick Worth – who is considered the father of Haute Couture – had access to his rooms in the Tuileries Palace, one as a supplier of his wardrobe and the other with the task of "packing the most beautiful clothes in the exquisite way".

In 1858, Vuitton created the brand's first suitcase. And a year later he had to move his production to Asnières, a small town northwest of Paris, where the whole family lived and worked, a craft workshop that started with 20 employees. There Vuitton transformed the suitcase into a cult object, began to use its iconic canvas, with its classic Trianon, which would be followed by the iconic Damier. There he created his emblematic Wardrobe in 1875, a trunk designed to open vertically, of which versions are still being manufactured in and in the same atelier today. And there he worked until his death, in 1892, in the company of his son Georges, who continued the activity. In 1896, George decided to pay homage to his father and created the LV logo which, along with the geometric floral drawings, he stamped on his suitcases, and began to write his own story.

Louis 200

The Maison celebrates its bicentenary around the world this year with Louis 200, and has launched a series of creative initiatives to highlight the legacy and enduring spirit of the founder. The programming planned by Louis Vuitton throughout the year transcends the limits of a tribute to use, "it is the retransmission of the founder's journey as a public face and collective experience, a catalyst of infinite inspiration", they explain from the firm.

Louis 200 brings us closer to the mythical beginnings, his close relationship with the couturier Charles Frederick Worth and his promotion as a manufacturer of trunks and luggage for the Empress Eugenia de Montijo, and how they contributed to forge his fame and the legend of the. Also to his intuition, which allowed him to anticipate the new needs of high society when traveling, and his ingenuity and skill when designing and using materials that radically transformed the functionality of his trunks and suitcases to the point of transforming them into objects of worship.

art and daring

Among the initiatives, Alex Katz has created a large-scale Louis Vuitton triptych and store windows around the world will display the iconic flower trunk, created in the 1910s for select clients, reinterpreted by two hundred exceptional collaborators, such as Jean Michel Othoniel, Alyssa Carson or Willo Perron.

And along with art, the Maison celebrates the bicentennial with the audacity and modernity that characterizes it: it has created a video game, Louis The Game, based on blockchain and with up to 30 different embedded NFTs (non-fungible tokens), 10 of which have been designed by Beeple, the most famous among digital artists, allowing players to learn about the fascinating life of Louis Vuitton between fun and challenging quizzes.

Two more: a fictional novel 'Louis Vuitton l'audacieux', a work by the French writer Caroline Bongrand on the life of the founder, published by Gallimard and whose edition in French and English was published in October. And an unprecedented documentary, 'Looking for Louis', which takes a journey through the history of the young pioneer. Available starting in December on the Explore Channel on Apple TV, the documentary will reveal the real Louis Vuitton, from its humble origins to its legacy that still lives on.

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