1888
Asnières, France
Vuitton family with staff.
Young Louis Vuitton
1888
Asnières, France
Vuitton family with staff.
Young Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton was born on August 4, 1821, in Anchay, Jura, France. His father, Xavier Vuitton, was a farmer, and his mother, Corinne Gaillard, was a milliner. Descended from a long-established working-class family, Vuitton's ancestors were joiners, carpenters, farmers, and milliners.
Louis Vuitton had a normal childhood until the age of 10 when tragedy struck the family and his mother died. Vuitton's new stepmother was a severe, wicked, and strict woman. Louis was a stubborn child who did not get along with his step-mother. He also grew increasingly bored of the simple life in his small village. Vuitton resolved to run away for the bustling capital of Paris.
He traveled for more than two years, taking up odd jobs on the way in order to fend for himself, and staying wherever he could find shelter. The journey to Paris was not an easy one, but he courageously endured on. He arrived in 1837, at the age of 16, to a capital city in the thick of an industrial revolution that had produced a litany of contradictions: awe-inspiring grandeur and abject poverty, rapid growth, and devastating epidemics. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing in Paris, and the city offered ample opportunities for his professional growth.
The teenage Vuitton was taken in as an apprentice in the workshop of a successful box-maker and packer named Monsieur Marechal. In the 19th century Europe, box-making, and packing was a highly respectable and urbane craft. The son of a carpenter, Vuitton mastered the skill of woodworking and designing trunks and, within ten years, had become an expert.
During his apprenticeship, Vuitton gained experience in packing by traveling to the homes of wealthy women, where he was employed to pack their clothes before they embarked on long voyages. A box-maker and packer custom-made all boxes to fit the goods they stored and personally loaded and unloaded the boxes. It took Vuitton only a few years to stake out a reputation amongst Paris' fashionable class as one of the city's premier practitioners of his new craft.
With his master, Monsieur Marechal, Vuitton went regularly to the Tuileries Palace, as the exclusive packers to the Empress Eugenie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III, and her ladies-in-waiting. He was assigned the responsibility of aesthetically packaging her clothes for transportation between the Tuileries Palace, the Château de Saint-Cloud, and various seaside resorts. This wonderful opportunity became a doorway to success for Vuitton and he received assignments from royal and elite clientele throughout his life.
He excelled in this position and the royal family was very happy with his services. This position also enabled him to attract elite and royal clientele. After making a name for himself as a premier box-maker who worked for royalty, he decided to open his own business. Thus he left Marechal's shop and opened his own box-making and packing workshop in Paris in 1854.
His company was successful from the very beginning and became even more famous after Louis Vuitton introduced his revolutionary stackable rectangular shaped trunks in the market, in 1858. Till that time, only trucks with rounded tops were available and his new design was more convenient to use than the rounded ones. Thus the demand for his products grew manifold.
Instead of leather, it was made of a gray canvas that was lighter, more durable, and more impervious to water and odors. However, the key selling point was that unlike all previous trunks, which were dome-shaped, Vuitton's trunks were rectangular - making them stackable and far more convenient for shipping via new means of transport like the railroad and steamship. Most commentators consider Vuitton's trunk the birth of modern luggage.
The trunks proved an immediate commercial success, and advances in transportation and the expansion of travel placed an increasing demand for Vuitton's trunks. In 1859, to fulfill the requests placed for his luggage, he expanded into a larger workshop in Asnieres, a village outside Paris. The business was booming, and Vuitton received personal orders not only from French royalty but also from Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt.
His business suffered a setback during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871 when his workshop was looted and destroyed. Ever the resilient soul, he did not let this setback curtail his ambitions. He re-established his business after the war and set up a new workshop in central Paris, once again winning the hearts of his clientele with his innovative and fashionable boxes and bags.
In 1872, he introduced a new design of trunks with a red and beige stripe. The elite class Parisians were attracted to Louis Vuitton’s latest creation and his brand sustained a position as offering luxurious and quality trunks. Another important innovation, one especially close to the heart of his clients, was the unpickable lock. Together with his son George, he revolutionized luggage locks by creating a lock system with two spring buckles. Each lock had a unique and numbered key. The internal lock patterns were kept at Vuitton's workrooms and registered with the owner's name in case another key was needed.
For the next 20 years, Vuitton continued to operate out of 1 Rue Scribe, innovating high-quality, luxury luggage, and kept on working until his death in 1892. He left his company over the shoulders of his son, Georges Vuitton.
Under his son Georges, who created the company's famous LV monogram and future generations of Vuittons, the Louis Vuitton brand would grow into the world-renowned luxury leather and lifestyle brand it remains today. In 1987, the company became part of Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate. Today the Louis Vuitton brand offers additional things than just trunks, including leather accessories and fashion goods, like bags, shoes, sunglasses, and much more.
Louis Vuitton was a French entrepreneur and designer whose name has become iconic in the fashion world. When Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor of the French in 1852, his wife hired Louis Vuitton as her personal box-maker and packer.
This provided a gateway for Vuitton to a class of elite and royal clientele who would seek his services for the duration of his life and far beyond, as the Louis Vuitton brand would grow into the world-renowned luxury leather and lifestyle brand it is today.
Vuitton may have simply been a successful carpenter in the eyes of some, but he understood the importance of style, quality, innovation, and a recognizable stamp. He set the foundation for a brand that would last far beyond his and his children’s lifetime.
In 1867 Vuitton was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle, an international exposition organized by Napoleon and held in Paris, which further increased the popularity of his work. In 1889 Vuitton won a gold medal and the grand prize at the Exposition Universelle, which once again helped to bolster the popularity of his work.
A very hard-working man, Louis Vuitton continued working until the very end of his life.
In 1854 Louis Vuitton met a 17-year-old beauty named Clemence-Emilie Parriaux. His great-grandson, Henry-Louis Vuitton, later recounted, "In the blink of an eye he exchanged the cloth frock and hobnailed shoes of a worker for the courting outfit of the day. The transformation was spectacular, but it required all the know-how of the store's department manager since Louis' shoulders were much larger than those of Parisian bureaucrats."
Vuitton and Parriaux married that spring, on April 22, 1854. Their son, Georges, played an important role in the managing of the business, opening the first Vuitton branch abroad in London in 1885.
At the age of 32, Vuitton took a wife,17-year-old Clemence-Emilie Parriaux. They married in 1854 and had a son, Georges Vuitton, who would later join his father’s award-winning company.
In 1890, Georges invented the theft-proof five tumbler lock, which provided each customer with a personal combination to secure all his luggage. When Vuitton died in 1892, Georges took over his father's business.
In 1896 he created the now-famous monogram canvas in an effort to combat counterfeiting. Georges Vuitton took his father's initials and incorporated them in design with abstract geometric flowers to create what remains today one of the most distinctive - and prestigious - luggage patterns ever invented.
When Countess Eugenie de Montijo, married Emperor Napoleon IIII, she hired Louis as her personal box-maker and packer. She charged him with "packing the most beautiful clothes in an exquisite way."
This was the exact situation Vuitton needed to introduce his crafts into the circles of nobility and royalty. Vuitton did so successfully and thereafter had access to a class of elite and royal clientele who would seek his services for the duration of his life.
With his master, Monsieur Marechal, Vuitton went regularly to the Tuileries Palace, as the exclusive packers to Empress Eugenie and her ladies-in-waiting.
Louise Vuitton's bags became so popular that he even received personal orders from Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt.
