Even though Louis Vuitton is owned by the French conglomerate LVMH, there's still a family feeling at the ancestral home and workshops, where trunks and handbags are made in a village outside of Paris. Come along for a special tour.
Iconic trunks with the Louis Vuitton pattern — some dating back to the start of the business — are on display. In 1858, as railroads replaced the horse and buggy as a primary means of transportation, Vuitton debuted a lighter, more durable rectangular trunk that could be stacked more easily, unlike the domed-shaped trunks that were prevalent at the time. Because the rectangular lids did not shed water as easily as the domed predecessors, he came up with a treated grey canvas called Trianon and then a checkerboard pattern called Damier. The trunks were an immediate hit; most historians credit the Vuitton trunk as the birth of modern luggage.
Photo by © Michelle Watson CatchLightGroup.com
Iconic trunks with the Louis Vuitton pattern — some dating back to the start of the business — are on display. In 1858, as railroads replaced the horse and buggy as a primary means of transportation, Vuitton debuted a lighter, more durable rectangular trunk that could be stacked more easily, unlike the domed-shaped trunks that were prevalent at the time. Because the rectangular lids did not shed water as easily as the domed predecessors, he came up with a treated grey canvas called Trianon and then a checkerboard pattern called Damier. The trunks were an immediate hit; most historians credit the Vuitton trunk as the birth of modern luggage.
