Longest surviving luxury fashion: Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton, commonly referred to as LV, is a luxury fashion house and retail company found by Louis Vuitton in 1854. It is one of the oldest surviving luxury brands in the world. This article will take you through the life of the man behind the big name.
Louis was born in France in 1821 and came from a family of farmers. His father was a farmer and his mother was a milliner. He was only 10 years of age when his mother died, and his father too soon thereafter. At the age of 13, he decided to leave for Paris, on foot. At his arrival at the age of 16, Paris was at a transforming age through Industrial Revolution. In these two years he took on odd jobs for survival and found shelter wherever he could.
After reaching Paris, he became an apprentice at a workshop for box-making. This was an urbane work at the time. He worked there till the age of 33, after which he decided to open his own shop in the same business. Four years later, Vuitton decided to introduce rectangular shaped trunks, at a time when rounded tops were the norm. This product came out to be a revolutionary one. The demands for his products began to increase, so did his business. Soon after, he became the personal box-maker for the Empress of France.
After his death in 1892, the management of the company passed on to his son. It was now that the evolution of the brand was taken to another level. The company began to collaborate on an international level. During the 20th century and through all the war years, the company was working with the Nazis in Germany. This did increase the controversies for the Vuitton family, accusing them of aiding the government and increasing their own wealth, as mentioned in “Louis Vuitton, a French Saga”, authored by a French journalist, Stephanie Bonvicini.
The leather revolution began after 1945, when more and more leather was being incorporated in the products. In 1959, the company’s monogram went through a change to make it more usable in other products like bags and accessories. The company had begun to broaden its horizons. By the later- half of the century, the company had opened stores in Japan and Korea. The brand was now coming to the Asian shores.
LV was only revamped when Marc Jacobs was made the Art Director of the company in 1997. Since then and up until now, the brand has been growing at a tremendous speed. From boxes to accessories and fashion goods, the brand has come a long way.