Only a handful of brands have managed to achieve global recognition, the ability to be identified anywhere in the world. And within this category, there are even fewer companies possessing both universal appeal and yet exclusivity. One of those is Louis Vuitton, unusual also in that it has managed to maintain traditions of quality while changing according to circumstances over the past century-and-a-half.
Louis Vuitton owes its origins to a Frenchman of the same name who had the good fortune to set himself up in the luggage manufacture trade just as railway travel became widespread. He left his home in the Jura district at the age of 14 to walk to Paris, where he became apprenticed to a craftsman trunkmaker. Eventually, in 1854, he established his own business on the Rue des Capucines. Within less than 20 years he had become so successful that he had to move to new premises on the Rue Scribe, as well as open what remains one of the company's principal workshops at Asnieres, a Parisian suburb.
As means of travel evolved, so did the luggage produced by Vuitton. Wardrobe trunks were first manufactured by the company in 1875, followed by suitcases in 1890. The canvas and leather Steamer bag emerged in 1901, in response to the growing appeal of trans-Atlantic liner crossings, and within a decade Vuitton was also producing items of luggage for automobiles.
From the start the company has recognised the importance of developing new markets for its product. In the last century, the British were not only customers but also potential rivals, so a Louis Vuitton shop was opened in London in 1885. The United States were another source of new business, and Louis's son Georges Vuitton made his first visit there in 1893, a year after his father's death, when he travelled to New York and Chicago. There are now Louis Vuitton shops all around the world - more than 40 in Japan - and one of the most recent additions is the outlet opened last month in Brown Thomas, Dublin.
From the 1920s onwards, many Hollywood actors became noted Vuitton clients. In 1925, for example, Douglas Fairbanks ordered a suitcase from the company in natural cowhide lined with pigskin. The first shoe trunk was made for opera singer Lily Pons in the same year, while shortly afterwards the Maharaja of Baroda ordered a fully-equipped travelling tea kit.
One drawback to so much worldwide attention and publicity was that the company's designs were constantly being copied. The first line produced by Louis Vuitton - a grey waterproof canvas - was soon offered by competitors, as were its successors, first a striped and then a chequerboard canvas design. Eventually, in 1896 Vuitton came up with a very elaborate pattern involving a curved beige diamond with four-point star inset and its reverse, a beige circle with four-leaved flower inset plus the entwined LV initials. This monogram has remained with the company ever since, and more than anything else has helped to give Vuitton its global branding.
The other consistent feature of the goods manufactured has been their consistently excellent quality. The unpickable five-tumbler lock used on many bags, for example, was invented and patented by Vuitton in 1890. Almost all the work on every item is still carried out by hand, and the most common materials are still leather, canvas and brass. Some of the largest pieces of luggage can take up to 900 brass nails, and specially requested items need 300 hours of workmanship and between five and six months before completion.
It would be tempting, but unwise, for any company with the history and prestige of Louis Vuitton to rest on its reputation. What marks this organisation - which has been part of the French LVMH luxury goods group since 1987 - apart from others and helps to explain its continued success is the awareness that change must be constant. Designers from outside the company, such as Romeo Gigli, Vivienne Westwood, Manolo Blahnik and Helmut Lang, have been invited to produce their own bags for production. Among the most recent of the new lines has been the Epi, a consistently popular line of leather stamped to look as though it were ridged and used for handbags since its debut in 1985.
Most imaginatively of all, two years ago, Louis Vuitton decided to expand the range of items produced, by diversifying into ready-to-wear clothing. The designer chosen for this job was American Marc Jacobs, who, from his first season as the company's creative director, has cleverly blended together traditional and new elements described by the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes as "hip deluxe". Among his most successful innovations: the Monogram Vernis range of bags and accessories that incorporate the familiar Louis Vuitton design but stamped on patent leather and in a range of unexpected colours - pink and baby blue for last season, purple and red for the coming autumn/winter. The Vuitton clothing line (not available in Dublin as yet) similarly blends the old and the novel in pieces such as ponchos made from both rubberised cotton and skunk fur, a patent leather backpack and - a real high fashion item for the present season - an off-the-shoulder ribbed cashmere shrug.
The hallmarks of Jacobs's range are the same as those of the rest of Louis Vuitton: luxury expressed in the simplest fashion employing the best possible materials to the highest possible standards. The original Louis Vuitton might not understand the allure of a pink patent leather clutch, but he would certainly appreciate the workmanship which had gone into its production.
The Louis Vuitton shop at Brown Thomas, Dublin, now carries the company's accessory range, including luggage and handbags, belts, pens and notebooks
