Louis Vuitton's empire began with a trunk you could finally stack
In the 1850s most trunks had rounded lids so rain would run off, which meant nobody could pile them up. Louis Vuitton made his flat-topped and covered in light, airtight grey canvas. Rivals copied it so relentlessly that the family spent decades inventing new patterns, ending with the famous LV monogram of 1896.
Vuitton opened his workshop in 1854 on Rue Neuve des Capucines in Paris. His flat Trianon-canvas trunk arrived in 1858, and imitation followed at once. He answered with beige-and-brown stripes in 1876, then the Damier check in 1888, stamped with a line declaring it a registered trademark. A London shop on Oxford Street had opened by 1885, and one early client was Oyama Iwao, a Japanese military observer who ordered luggage in Paris in 1871.
After Louis died in 1892, his son Georges set out to make the firm global. The Monogram canvas of 1896, with its quatrefoils, flowers and interlocked initials, drew on the late-Victorian fashion for Japanese family crests, and patents on it proved effective against forgers. By 1913 the Champs-Elysees building was the largest travel-goods store anywhere. Soft bags followed: the Keepall in 1930 and the Noe in 1932, first made to carry champagne bottles for vintners.
The Second World War is the darkest chapter. A 2004 book by journalist Stephanie Bonvicini reported that family members aided Petain's Vichy regime and profited from dealings with the occupiers, including a factory producing more than 2,500 busts of the marshal. LVMH said it did not deny the facts but felt the author exaggerated them.
Growth came late. In 1975 the house had just two shops and 10 million francs in yearly revenue; Henry Racamier took charge in 1977, stores opened in Tokyo and Osaka, and in 1987 a merger with Moet et Chandon and Hennessy created LVMH. Marc Jacobs arrived as artistic director in 1997 and launched ready-to-wear the next year, later bringing in Takashi Murakami, whose 2003 Multicolore range printed the monogram in 33 colours. The brand was ranked the world's most valuable luxury label from 2006 to 2012, worth US$28.4 billion by 2013.
Source: Louis Vuitton
