Louis Vuitton
Brand
Louis Vuitton: Malletier à Paris, more commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton, is a French luxury fashion house and leather goods company, known especially for their bags and trunks. Louis Vuitton is one of the main divisions of LVMH, and their headquarters are located in Paris, France. The company collaborates with prominent figures for marketing and design, such as supermodel Gisele Bündchen and fashion designer Marc Jacobs. Additionally, Louis Vuitton is one of the oldest fashion houses in the world which sells its products strictly through its own retail stores and small boutiques in high-end department stores. More recently, the company began developing and dealing with product sales online and have slowly branched out to consumers via the Internet. Louis Vuitton was founded by Louis Vuitton in 1853 on Rue Neuve des Capucines in Paris. Due to his well established reputation in his field as a layetier, or luggage packer, to prominent households, Napoleon III of France appointed Vuitton to his wife, Empress Eugénie de Montijo. Because of this, he developed expert knowledge of what a good travelling case consisted of. It was then that he began to design his own luggage, setting the foundations for the Louis Vuitton Company. In 1858, Vuitton introduced his flat-bottom trunks with Trianon canvas which were lightweight and airtight, and proved to be more practical than the prior rounded-top trunks which were used to promote water runoff, and thus could not be stacked. It was Vuitton's gray Trianon canvas flat trunk that allowed the ability to stack with ease for travels. As the company became more successful, many other luggage makers began to imitate LV's style and design. In 1867, the company participated in the universal exhibition in Paris. In order to protect against the duplication of his look, Vuitton changed the Trianon design to a beige and brown striped design in 1876. By 1885, the company opened its first store in London, England. Soon thereafter, due to the continuing imitation of his look, in 1888, the Damier Canvas pattern was created by Louis Vuitton, bearing a logo that read "marque L. Vuitton déposée," which translated to "mark L. Vuitton deposited" or, roughly, "L. Vuitton trademark". In 1892, Louis Vuitton passed away and the company's management passed to his son, Georges Vuitton. After the death of his father, Georges Vuitton began a campaign with plans of building the company into a worldwide corporation while taking it to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In 1896, the company launched the legendary Monogram Canvas and made the worldwide patents for it. Its graphic symbols, including quatrefoils and flowers (as well as the LV monogram), were based on the trend of using Japanese and Oriental designs in the late Victorian era. In this same year, Georges traveled to the United States, where he toured various cities selling Vuitton products during the visit. In 1901, the Louis Vuitton Company introduced the “Steamer” bag, a smaller piece of luggage designed to be kept inside Vuitton luggage trunks. By 1914, the Louis Vuitton Building opened on the Champs-Elysees, and was the largest travel-goods store in the world at the time. Soon after, stores opened in New York, Bombay, Washington, London, Alexandria, and Buenos Aires. Afterwards, in 1930, the “Keepall” bag was introduced and two years later the “Noé” bag was born which was originally made for champagne vintners to transport bottles. Soon thereafter, the Louis Vuitton “Speedy” bag was introduced, and still remains very popular to this date. Sadly, in 1936 Georges Vuitton passed away and his son Gaston-Louis Vuitton assumed control of the company. During this period, the look of the leather was utilized in everything from small purses and wallets to larger pieces of luggage. The company sought to broaden its line and revamped its signature Monogram Canvas in 1959. In 1966, the “Papillon” was launched—a cylindrical bag that is still popular today. In 1977, Louis Vuitton added another two stores to their company, and a year later, opened its first store in Japan. In 1983, the company joined with America's Cup to form the Louis Vuitton Cup, a preliminary competition for the yacht race. Louis Vuitton later expanded its presence in Asia with the opening of a store in Taipei, Taiwan in 1983, and Seoul, South Korea in 1984. The following year, the Epi leather line was introduced. LVMH was created in 1987 when Moët et Chandon and Hennessy, leading manufacturers of champagne and brandy, merged with Louis Vuitton to form the luxury goods conglomerate. By 1989, Louis Vuitton came to operate 130 stores worldwide. Entering the 1990s, Yves Carcelle was named president of Louis Vuitton, and in 1992 the brand opened its first Chinese location at the Palace Hotel in Beijing. In 1996, the celebration of the Centennial of the Monogram Canvas was held in seven cities worldwide.[ After introducing its pen collection in 1997, Louis Vuitton made Marc Jacobs one of the company’s Art Directors. In March of 1999, the company's first prêt-à-porter line of clothing for men and women was designed and launched. That same year the Monogram Vernis line, the mini monogram line and the Louis Vuitton City Guide were all launched as two stores opened in Marrakech and Morocco. Additionally, the vanity case titled "amfAR," designed by Sharon Stone, was auctioned and sold at the International Film Festival of Venice with proceeds going to The Foundation for AIDS Research. 1999 proved to be quite a successful year for the company. In 2001, Stephen Sprouse, in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, designed a limited-edition line of Vuitton bags that featured graffiti written over the monogram pattern. Certain pieces, which feature the graffiti without the Monogram Canvas background, were created and only available to the customers on Vuitton's V.I.P. customer list. Jacobs also created a charm bracelet, the first ever piece of jewelry from LV, within the same year. The Tambour watch collection was introduced in 2002 while the LV building in Tokyo was opened, and the brand collaborated with Bob Wilson for its Christmas windows scenography. In 2003, Takashi Murakami, in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, masterminded the new Monogram Multicolor canvas range of handbags and accessories. This range included the monograms of the standard Monogram Canvas, but in 33 different colors on either a white or black background. Murakami also created the Cherry Blossom pattern, in which smiling cartoon faces in the middle of pink and yellow flowers are sporadically placed atop the Monogram Canvas. This pattern appeared on a limited number of pieces. The production of this limited-edition run was discontinued in June 2003. Within 2003, the stores in Moscow, Russia and in New Delhi, India were opened. The Utah and Suhali leather lines were released while the 20th anniversary of the LV Cup was held as well. Louis Vuitton celebrated its worldwide 150th anniversary in 2004. In that year, the brand inaugurated stores in New York City, São Paulo and Johannesburg. It also opened its first global store in Shanghai. By 2005, Louis Vuitton reopened its Champs-Élysées store and released the Speedy watch collection. Today, the Louis Vuitton company has carefully cultivated a celebrity following while also using famous models and actresses such as Jennifer Lopez and Madonna in its marketing campaigns. Breaking from their usual traditions of employing supermodels and celebrities to advertise their products, the company announced in 2007 that the former USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev would appear in an ad campaign along with Steffi Graff, Andre Agassi and Catherine Deneuve. The company commonly uses print ads in magazines and billboards in cosmopolitan cities and just recently, Antoine Arnault, director of the communication department, decided to enter the world of television and cinema with a 90 second commercial exploring the theme, "Where will life take you?" and is translated into 13 different languages. This is the first Vuitton commercial ad which was directed by renowned French director Bruno Aveillan. Since the 19th century, the manufacturing of Louis Vuitton goods has not changed: Luggage is still made by hand and the woven frames of each trunk are made of 30-year-old poplar that has been allowed to dry for at least four years. Each trunk has a serial number and can take up to 60 hours to make, and a suitcase as many as 15 hours. The company manufactures and markets luxury leather goods, fashion accessories, prêt-à-porter, and jewelry. All of the company's products exhibit the eponymous LV initials. Because of Louis Vuitton’s dedication to classic originality and quality, the company as a fashion brand is one of the largest in the fashion industry with admirers all throughout the world.
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