Louis Vuitton history, profile and history video
Louis Vuitton is one of the world’s most valuable luxury brands and is a division of LVMH. Its products include leather goods, handbags, trunks, shoes, watches, jewelry and accessories. Most of these are adorned with the LV monogram. It is one of the most profitable brands in the world with profit margins approaching 40%. Long-time creative director Marc Jacobs left Louis Vuitton in 2013 after 16 years in charge of the brand. He plans to focus on his own Marc Jacobs line, which is also owned by LVMH. Recent product endorsers of the brand include Angelina Jolie, Muhammad Ali and Michael Phelps.”
“Louis Vuitton History
Founding to World War II
The Louis Vuitton label was founded by Vuitton in 1854 on Rue Neuve des Capucines in Paris, France. Louis Vuitton had observed that the HJ Cave Osilite trunk could be easily stacked and in 1858, Vuitton introduced his flat-bottom trunks with trianon canvas, making them lightweight and airtight. Before the introduction of Vuitton’s trunks, rounded-top trunks were used, generally to promote water run off, and thus could not be stacked. It was Vuitton’s gray Trianon canvas flat trunk that allowed the ability to stack with ease for voyages. Many other luggagemakers imitated LV’s style and design.
In 1857, the company participated in the universal exhibition in Paris. To protect against the duplication of his look, Vuitton changed the Trianon design to a beige and brown stripes design in 1876. By 1885, the company opened its first store in London on Oxford Street. Soon thereafter, due to the continuing imitation of his look, in 1888, Vuitton created the Damier Canvas pattern, which bore a logo that reads “marque L. Vuitton déposée“, which translates into “L. Vuitton registered trademark”. In 1892, Louis Vuitton died, and the company’s management passed to his son.
After the death of his father, Georges Vuitton began a campaign to build the company into a worldwide corporation, exhibiting the company’s products at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. In 1896, the company launched the signature Monogram Canvas and made the worldwide patents on 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. The patents later proved to be successful in stopping counterfeiting. In this same year, Georges traveled to the United States, where he toured cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, selling Vuitton products. In 1901, the Louis Vuitton Company introduced the Steamer Bag, a smaller piece of luggage designed to be kept inside Vuitton luggage trunks.
By 1913, the Louis Vuitton Building opened on the Champs-Elysees. It was the largest travel-goods store in the world at the time. Stores also opened in New York, Bombay, Washington, London, Alexandria, and Buenos Aires as World War I began. Afterwards, in 1930, the Keepall bag was introduced. During 1932, LV introduced the Noé bag. This bag was originally made for champagne vintners to transport bottles. Soon thereafter, the Louis Vuitton Speedy bag was introduced (both are still manufactured today). In 1936 Georges Vuitton died, and his son, Gaston-Louis Vuitton, assumed control of the company.
Collaboration
During World War II, Louis Vuitton collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France. The French book Louis Vuitton, A French Saga, authored by French journalist Stephanie Bonvicini and published by Paris-based Editions Fayard tells how members of the Vuitton family actively aided the puppet government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain and increased their wealth from their business affairs with the Germans. The family set up a factory dedicated to producing artifacts glorifying Pétain, including more than 2,500 busts.
Caroline Babulle, a spokeswoman for the publisher, Fayard, said: “They have not contested anything in the book, but they are trying to bury it by pretending it doesn’t exist.”Responding to the book’s release in 2004, a spokesman for LVMH said: “This is ancient history. The book covers a period when it was family-run and long before it became part of LVMH. We are diverse, tolerant and all the things a modern company should be.” An LVMH spokesman told the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchainé: “We don’t deny the facts, but regrettably the author has exaggerated the Vichy episode. We haven’t put any pressure on anyone. If the journalists want to censor themselves, then that suits us fine.” That publication was the only French periodical to mention the book, LVMH is the country’s biggest advertiser in the press.
1945 through 2000
During this period, Louis Vuitton began to incorporate leather into most of its products, which ranged from small purses and wallets to larger pieces of luggage. In order to broaden its line, the company revamped its signature Monogram Canvas in 1959 to make it more supple, allowing it to be used for purses, bags, and wallets. It is believed that in the 1920s, counterfeiting returned as a greater issue to continue on into the 21st century. In 1966, the Papillon was launched (a cylindrical bag that is still popular today). By 1977 with annual revenue up to 70 million Francs ($14.27 million US$). A year later, the label opened its first stores in Japan: in Tokyo and Osaka. In 1983, the company joined with America’s Cup to form the Louis Vuitton Cup, a preliminary competition (known as an eliminatory regatta) 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. In the following year, 1985, the Epi leather line was introduced.
1987 saw the creation of LVMH. Moët et Chandon and Hennessy, leading manufacturers of champagne and cognac, merged respectively with Louis Vuitton to form the luxury goods conglomerate. Profits for 1988 were reported to have been up by 49% more than in 1987. By 1989, Louis Vuitton came to operate 130 stores worldwide. Entering the 1990s, Yves Carcelle was named president of LV, and in 1992, his brand opened its first Chinese location at the Palace Hotel in Beijing. Further products became introduced such as the Taiga leather line in 1993, and the literature collection of Voyager Avec… in 1994. In 1996, the celebration of the Centennial of the Monogram Canvas was held in seven cities worldwide.
In 1997, Louis Vuitton made Marc Jacobs its Artistic Director. In March of the following year, he designed and introduced the company’s first “prêt-à-porter” line of clothing for men and women. Also in this year products introduced included the Monogram Vernis line, the LV scrapbooks, and the Louis Vuitton City Guide.
The last events in the 20th century were the release of the mini monogram line in 1999, the opening of the first store in Africa inMarrakech, Morocco in 2000, and finally the auction at the International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, where the vanity case “amfAR” designed by Sharon Stone was sold with the proceeds going to The Foundation for AIDS Research (also in 2000).
2001 to 2011
By 2001, Stephen Sprouse, in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, designed a limited-edition line of Vuitton bags that featured graffiti written over the monogram pattern. The graffiti read Louis Vuitton and, on certain bags, the name of the bag (such as Keepall and Speedy). Certain pieces, which featured the graffiti without the Monogram Canvas background, were only available on Louis Vuitton’s V.I.P.customer list. Jacobs also created the charm bracelet, the first ever piece of jewelry from LV, within the same year.
In 2002, the Tambour watch collection was introduced. During this year, the LV building in Tokyo’sGinza district was opened, and the brand collaborated with Bob Wilson for itsChristmas windows sceneography. In 2003, Takashi Murakami, in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, masterminded the new Monogram Multicolore 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. (The classic canvas features gold monograms on a brown background.) Murakami also created the Cherry Blossom pattern, in which smiling cartoon faces in the middle of pink and yellow flowers were 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, and the 20th anniversary of the LV Cup was held.
In 2004, Louis Vuitton celebrated its 150th anniversary. The brand also inaugurated stores in New York City (on Fifth Avenue), São Paulo, Mexico City, Cancun and Johannesburg. It also opened its first global store in Shanghai. By 2005, Louis Vuitton reopened its Champs-Élysées store in Paris designed by the American Architect Eric Carlson (reputed to be the largest and most successful LV store in the world), and released the Speedy watch collection. In 2006, LV held the inauguration of the Espace Louis Vuitton on its 7th floor. In 2008, Louis Vuitton released the Damier Graphite canvas. The canvas features the classic Damier pattern but in black and grey, giving it a masculine look and urban feel.
In 2010, Louis Vuitton opened what it described as their most luxurious store in London.
In early 2011, Louis Vuitton hired Kim Jones as its “Men Ready-to-wear Studio and Style Director”. Essentially, he became the lead designer of menswear while working under the company-wide artistic directorship of Marc Jacobs.
On 17 September 2011, Louis Vuitton opened its very first Island Maison (island mansion) in Singapore, the first ‘maison’ to be opened in South-east Asia.
2012 to present
As of September 2013, the company hired Darren Spaziani to lead its accessory collection.
On November 4, 2013, the company confirmed that Nicolas Ghesquière had been hired to replace Marc Jacobs as artistic director of women’s collections. Ghesquière’s first line for the company will be shown in Paris in March 2014.
On April 7, 2014, Edouard Schneider will be the head of press and public relations at Louis Vuitton under Frédéric Winckler, who is Vuitton’s communications and events director.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org
**Video published on YouTube by “Hook“