Louis Vuitton, the French trunk maker behind the famous luxury brand

Stéphane Bern, edited by Alexis Patri 10:29 pm, December 27, 2021

We are in 1854, in Paris.

For a few weeks now, Louis Vuitton, a young trunk maker, has opened, with the means at hand, his first store at 4, rue Neuve des Capucines, in the center of the capital.

The room is cramped, and there isn't even a chair to welcome customers.

Imagine the pleasure of Louis Vuitton when the wife of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie in person, shows up in front of her store, dressed in a sumptuous dress, accompanied by two ladies of the company and a guard.

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The Empress came to give her her schedule for the weeks to come, because she insisted that it be him, and him alone, who took care of packing her things for her next trips.

When the sovereign emerges from the store, a crowd has formed outside.

The name of Louis Vuitton is soon on everyone's lips.

It is a packager of great prestige, and of perfect reliability.

From the upper middle class to the nobility, everyone wants their things packed by Louis Vuitton.

And it still lasts today.

From a humble background to an imperial friendship

But back to the origins.

Louis Vuitton, born just 200 years ago, in 1821, was only 13 when he left, alone, without a crumb of bread, but with the determination to sell, the family mill to escape his mother-in-law. who mistreats him.

On foot, he travels the hundreds of kilometers that separate him from Paris, where he enters as an apprentice in the workshop of Monsieur Maréchal, a packer-trunk maker.

At the time, horse-drawn carriages, boats or trains were the main modes of transport, and luggage was often abused.

Well-off travelers therefore call on the services of a packager to protect their personal belongings.

Louis Vuitton becomes one of these noble craftsmen.

He spends his days and nights perfecting his art in the studio and never allows himself the slightest entertainment.

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He only lives for his work, which allows him to become the trunk-maker of a certain Eugenie de Montijo, future wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.

The young woman appreciates Louis Vuitton a lot, whom she considers almost a friend.

She is one of the first to advise him to open his own store.

Louis Vuitton saves every penny earned to buy the materials needed to get started.

He stores everything in his room.

It is also in the midst of around thirty tools of all kinds that his young wife Emilie spends her wedding night.

Enthused by her husband's ambition, she will support him throughout his life in his business. 

The first thing to do is choose the location of the store.

Louis Vuitton is studying the plans of the Prefect Georges Eugène Haussmann to whom Napoleon III has just entrusted a mission of the utmost importance: to carry out a series of major works intended to make Paris a city of prestige.

Some suburbs were completely destroyed, others were redesigned and major roads were created.

Louis Vuitton is establishing itself in the new Opera district, which is under construction.

The young entrepreneur himself repaints the storefront in a beautiful brown color and affixes his name in beige letters: Louis Vuitton.

An innovative trunk that has become legendary

The trunk maker specializes in fashion packaging and particularly the spectacular crinoline dresses in vogue under the Second Empire. The bust is tight, but some ladies' skirts are so wide that they can measure up to nine meters in circumference. Underneath, to give even more dimension, we wear six or seven petticoats on top of each other. To transport these bulky outfits, Louis Vuitton is developing a new case size and folding technique that prevents the dress from wrinkling, even after a long trip.

Six months after settling in, its order book is already full.

Louis Vuitton is hardworking, but also inventive.

For his elite customers, he developed clever flat trunks that stacked more easily than the old models, with their domed lids.

For the wealthy, Louis Vuitton creates personalized luggage.

When Ismaïl Pasha, the regent of Egypt is passing through Paris, Louis Vuitton invents at his request a baggage allowing to transport fruits without them spoiling, even in full sun. 

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Louis Vuitton, this name is now on everyone's lips. The proof, he was invited by the Empress to stay at the Palace of Compiègne. Several times a year, the emperor and his wife invite around a hundred personalities for several days. Theater, walks, hunting and luxurious dinners are on the program. We meet beautiful people there: scientists like Louis Pasteur, or writers like Flaubert.

The invitation of the imperial couple is such an honor that the first instinct of the humble Louis Vuitton is to refuse: "We will meet our customers there, it will embarrass them, and us too. We must stay in our place", confides he modestly.

But his wife doesn't hear it that way and convinces him to accept.

For the occasion, the Vuitton couple are offering themselves new outfits and even taking dance lessons, Caroline Bongrand tells us in her biography.  

Often copied, never equaled

But with Louis Vuitton, work is never far away.

No sooner had he arrived in Compiègne than he noticed among the guests' luggage, imitations of his flat trunks, made by the competition.

As soon as he returned to Paris, he explored the trunk-makers' shops, looking for someone who dared to copy him.

He is not disappointed with what he finds.

No less than five manufacturers have reproduced his trunk.

Louis Vuitton, with an impressive build with his broad shoulders and large hands, causes a fight with one of them and ends up at the post.

From now on, the trunk maker will think about filing a patent for his new inventions and, later, when the Louis Vuitton brand has achieved international fame, his son will imagine a print to limit counterfeits.

But before this apotheosis, the Vuitton family (Louis, his wife Emilie and their children) experienced a terrible mishap.

In 1870, the Second Empire was overthrown.

Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie pack up, constrained and forced, in England while Paris is besieged by Prussian soldiers.

The Vuitton workshops, located in Asnières, were set on fire.

In a few days, Louis Vuitton loses the job of a lifetime.

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Vuitton must sell trunks, and quickly.

Its former wealthy Parisian clientele has deserted, Louis Vuitton is therefore working to attract tourists who are themselves more and more numerous with the joint development of the railway, the steamship, the automobile and the airplane, pouring in.  

The tourism industry is booming.

A certain Thomas Cook created the first travel agency in England in 1841, and one of the most successful destinations is Paris.

Hotels such as the Grand Hôtel de la Paix and palaces, the Meurice or the Bristol first, are on the increase in the capital to welcome wealthy travelers.

Inventions that marked the history of fashion

Faithful to its habits, and seeing fashion change (crinolines are outdated, we are now tearing up new dresses with much less fabric), Louis Vuitton innovates with the

trunk

, a kind of portable wardrobe with hangers so as not to have to fold his outfits. This ingenious baggage conquers wealthy globetrotters and American businessmen like John Pierpont Morgan or Rockefeller.

Vuitton finds success again, but a series of terrible mourning hits him.

Her last daughter died of scarlet fever when she was not six years old.

His inconsolable wife follows her to the grave shortly after.

Louis Vuitton retired to devote himself to developing new ideas in his workshop.

He developed the checkerboard canvas and then installed tamper-proof locks for the security of the trunks.

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It is his son Georges Vuitton who now manages the business. He opened a shop in England before attacking America, after the death of his father in 1892. It was Georges who was inspired by the design of a tile in his parents' kitchen to create the famous monogram. with the initials LV in tribute to his father. After the disappearance of Louis Vuitton, his luggage will continue to travel around the world alongside the most illustrious travelers. In the mid-twentieth century, it is even said that Hemingway would have found his manuscript of

 in one of his trunks forgotten at the Ritz for years. 

Greta Garbo and her shoe trunk, Yves Saint Laurent and her luggage with books.

Louis Vuitton brings together famous aficionados.

Some custom orders have changed the course of fashion, such as when actress Audrey Hepburn asks that the size of a duffel bag be reduced for her.

This will give the Speedy, one of the best-selling handbag models in the world.

Louis Vuitton was a discreet man, yet thanks to his trunks, his monogram is now known throughout the world.