The World’s No. 1 Luxury Brand: Louis Vuitton
June 2nd, 2008
Louis Vuitton was recently ranked the No. 1 luxury brand in the Millward Brown BrandZ listing of the Top 100 Most Powerful Brands in the world. The favored label of movie-stars and the wealthy, the famous French company has a fascinating history.
Louis Vuitton celebrated its 154th anniversary in 2004. At the exhibition in Paris held to display the history of the company, Raphael Gerard, Charge des Expositions for Louis Vuitton, remarked that: “We want to remind people that our brand began with the art of travelling.”
In 1835 the founder of the company was only 14. He couldn’t afford the money to travel from his home town of Anchay to Paris in a stage-coach so he walked the whole distance – about 250 miles. The son of a carpenter, he did woodworking jobs along the way to pay his expenses.
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When Louis arrived in Paris he became the apprentice of Monsieur Marechal, a master trunk-maker and a packer for Empress Eugenie. Louis noticed that travel was becoming more accessible by ship and rail and that those who could afford it were mostly upper-class. He decided to cater for them and began his company on the rue-Neuve-des-Cappucines.
He invented the first flat-top trunks and covered them in elegant grey trianon canvas. The canvas was also an innovation because luggage-makers had used leather previously. Louis Vuitton’s durable and strong trunks soon became very popular and his skills were rewarded when his luggage began to win awards.
The Trunk-Bed and the Wardrobe Trunk were two remarkable inventions of Louis. The Trunk-Bed, designed for the French explorer, de Brazza, to take to the Congo, contained a fold-out cot with sheets and blankets. The Wardrobe Trunk was a vertical trunk designed to carry clothes so that they would be wrinkle-free.
Georges, Louis’s son, continued the company and made it even more famous. He even tested the strength of the firm’s luggage by testing it on trips across the Algerian and Tunisian deserts on horse-back.
Like Louis, Georges was also a very clever inventor. One of his highly-regarded inventions was the five-tumbler lock. Still a celebrated feature of the company’s luggage, this enables each owner to have a special key to open his or her suitcase.
Georges also designed the iconic Louis Vuitton monogram, the first designer-label. According to legend, the three fleurs-de-lis which are a feature of this pattern were inspired by Le Japonisme, the Parisian craze for Japanese things. They are very similar to Japanese heraldic symbols.
Georges was responsible for the company’s success in America. He took samples to the Chicago Exhibition in 1893.Preview this Post
His son Gaston opened stores in New York, London and Nice. He invented the Keep all bag which was strong and lightweight but more compact than most luggage. This could be used as an overnight bag and stored in the suitcase.
Louis Vuitton is still a family-run business. Patrick Louis Vuitton, the great-grandson of Louis, is now the President of the company.