Louis Vuitton Cases - How are they Made?
A case is not a case - although Louis Vuitton makes an exceptional case for everything!
It may sound funny… but the fact is that Louis Vuitton makes a case for every situation. No matter what you want to carry or take along when you travel to any destination - be it in the middle of the hot Gobi Desert, on top of Mount Everest, the icy North Pole or the Moon -, you will find a perfect solution within the large array of Louis Vuitton designer trunks, cases or luggage… and if not, they will make one for you!
As Patrick-Louis Vuitton, a fifth-generation member of the founding family who oversees all of Louis Vuitton’s custom projects said recently in an Interview with Men’s Vogue:
“The only criteria - strictly enforced to honor the original spirit of the 150-year-old company - are that the item is portable and that its raison d’être is transport. We are in the business of movement… A special order is a compromise between desires and needs from the client and our aesthetic and technical requirements.”
In their workshop in Asnières, France, la Maison de Louis Vuitton makes about 450 ’special-order’ cases per year. While the process of manufacturing the optimal LV case for a client and his or her specific needs and requirements can well take four to five months, it’s Louis Vuitton policy to keep it strictly within eight months as an absolute maximum.
Given the amount of detail and commitment to perfection put into each item and the materials used this shouldn’t be surprising.
Above you have a look into the Louis Vuitton workshop in Asnières, France. (Photo: Henry Bourne)
Bearing the above in mind, Louis Vuitton has designed cases for almost everything… from hookah pipes to a portable altar for a French priest travelling to Africa in the 1920’s.
On the other hand, Louis Vuitton protects its brand and chooses carefully who it associates with and which order can be accepted or must be refused following strict LV principles - be it of branding, ethics or design.
It seems that if a special request is not acceptable - like covering the interior of a car with little LV monograms - Louis Vuitton will offer a polite suggestion that a client may choose to follow - or forget the idea. We have seen celebrities like Britney Spears being taken to court - and lose the case (… another Louis Vuitton case this…) as the brand was used without authorization by Louis Vuitton.
So all famous Louis Vuitton lovers: think twice before you include your favorite LV case or LV bag or any label or logo of the exclusive Fashion House in your next record-breaking video!
And here’s the fascinating story of how it all began which I snatched up from a brilliant article by Hudson Morgan in Men’s Vogue… and it sounds a bit like my great-grand-father who was one of the first to travel from Prussia to Egypt… long ago:
“Before Italian explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza embarked on his first African expedition in the late nineteenth century, he asked a trunk-maker named Louis Vuitton to design an extra-long foldout bed to ensure restful nights on his journey. One hundred years later, the luxury-luggage house still customizes gear that makes life on the road less like life on the road.
More distinctive than the oft-knocked-off bags on Canal Street are the specialized pieces to carry all of your goods and chattels, from backgammon sets, architectural tools, stereo equipment, and computers to wardrobes, safes, and even collapsible desks. The only criteria—strictly enforced to honor the original spirit of the 150-year-old company—are that the item is portable and that its raison d’être is transport.
“We are in the business of movement,” says Patrick-Louis Vuitton, a fifth-generation member of the founding family who oversees all of LV’s custom projects. “A special order is a compromise between desires and needs from the client and our aesthetic and technical requirements.”
Louis Vuitton fills 450 off-the-menu orders each year from its workshop in Asnières, France, a metal-and-glass space that’s like a Santa’s workshop for the well-accoutred. Once a client has expressed his vision — as well as the travel conditions and hazards that his piece must endure — the product slowly takes shape through stages of detailed sketches and prototypes. This process can take four or five months (but no more than eight, as a policy), and it reflects LV’s mastery of both old-world craftsmanship and technological trends in travelware. And in an era of mass production, Patrick-Louis maintains a personal touch by assigning as few as one worker to each custom item to see it through from the first stitches to the final product. Price is determined by size, materials (e.g., crocodile versus, say, Epi leather), and the overall complexity of the piece: A chess set, for example, made of inlaid lacquered wood, Madagascar-ebony-and-maple pieces, and a russet leather case costs around $21,000.
Patrick-Louis calls his clients “aesthetes of travel” who are on the road 100 to 200 days per year, but he’s mum about who’s ordered what—and rightfully so, as the custom-order paperwork promises confidentiality. But if you’re desperate for inspiration, LV’s PR department was willing to provide a few semi-anonymous precedents.
- There’s the European president who ordered a small case with just two compartments—for a watch and a bottle of cognac—which he gifted to an Asian head of state;
- the CEO who ordered 20 differently lined valet boxes (one for each member of his executive board);
- the Saudi prince who ordered a travel case to protect his expensive hookah;
- and the American businessman who ordered a Taïga Ardoise leather bar trunk outfitted with enough compartments to turn the mildest of picnics into an all-day rager—it stows a bottle of champagne, two flutes, a whiskey decanter, four glasses, an ice bucket, and a full cabinet of other bar equipment.
- Even men of the cloth have exercised their right: In the 1920s a French priest—apparently also something of a paleontologist—requested a special altar trunk so that he could give Mass during an archaeological dig in the desert.”
Hudson Morgan concludes on the same point we made earlier…:
“Of course, for every commodity there are those who abuse it, which is probably why Vuitton reserves the right to modify a request if it’s too outlandish, showy, or impractical. When a particularly earnest customer recently asked LV to decorate the interior of his sports car in the signature canvas—a novel interpretation of the portability rule, to say the least—he was politely informed that the company would be happy to make him suitcases for the trunk of his car instead.”
And here’s the absolute optimum of “Travel Aesthetics”… I can see it featured in the Sahara Desert… all sandy colours, grey stone and blue sky, the colour of heat and fata morgana… and there within it all… the life-giving oasis: a Louis Vuitton portable shower!!! And within it… Madonna? Britney Spears? ET?
“As for what’s next in the annals of custom orders, LV is currently developing a prototype for a trunk that transports your very own personal shower. A wonder Pierre Savorgnan never asked for that.”
As Albert Einstein said well before my time:
“Imagination is everything.
It is the preview of Life’s coming attractions.”
Life is exciting! Life is constant Change!
Be a person on the move, on the go - Travel with your LV case, with or without shower!
Have a great LVday!
Bianca Gubalke
