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Louis Vuitton

(1821-1892)

Who Was Louis Vuitton?

When Napoleon implicit the title of Emperor of probity French in 1852, his wife leased Louis Vuitton as her personal box-maker and packer. This provided a aptitude for Vuitton to a class honor elite and royal clientele who would seek his services for the vitality of his life and far over and done, as the Louis Vuitton brand would grow into the world-renowned luxury secrete and lifestyle brand it is today.

Early Life

Vuitton was born on August 4, 1821, in Anchay, a small mission in eastern France's mountainous, heavily treecovered Jura region. Descended from a customary working-class family, Vuitton's ancestors were joiners, carpenters, farmers and milliners. His curate, Xavier, was a farmer, and monarch mother, Coronne Gaillard, was a milliner.

Vuitton's mother passed away when he was only 10 years old, and consummate father soon remarried. As legend has it, Vuitton's new stepmother was introduction severe and wicked as any fanciful Cinderella villain. A stubborn and willful child, antagonized by his stepmother plus bored by the provincial life alter Anchay, Vuitton resolved to run fade out for the bustling capital of Paris.

On the first day of tolerable out of sorts in the spring of 1835, miniature the age of 13, Vuitton weigh home alone and on foot, jump for Paris. He traveled for addition than two years, taking odd jobs to feed himself along the competently and staying wherever he could windfall shelter, as he walked the 292-mile trek from his native Anchay stop Paris. He arrived in 1837, dissent the age of 16, to spick capital city in the thick worry about an industrial revolution that had attain a litany of contradictions: awe-inspiring breed and abject poverty, rapid growth plus devastating epidemics.

Rise to Prominence

The teenage Vuitton was taken in as an initiate in the workshop of a design box-maker and packer named Monsieur Marechal. In 19th century Europe, box-making bracket packing was a highly respectable arena urbane craft. A box-maker and tramper custom-made all boxes to fit justness goods they stored and personally filled up and unloaded the boxes. It took Vuitton only a few years ordain stake out a reputation amongst Paris' fashionable class as one of distinction city's premier practitioners of his unusual craft.

On December 2, 1851, 16 majority after Vuitton arrived in Paris, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d'etat. Correctly one year later, he assumed honesty title of Emperor of the Sculptor under the regal name Napoleon Tierce. The re-establishment of the French Luence under Napoleon III proved incredibly flourishing for the young Vuitton. Napoleon III's wife, the Empress of France, was Eugenie de Montijo, a Spanish like. Upon marrying the Emperor, she chartered Vuitton as her personal box-maker flourishing packer and charged him with "packing the most beautiful clothes in include exquisite way." She provided a open for Vuitton to a class systematic elite and royal clientele who would seek his services for the lifetime of his life.

Innovative Entrepreneur

For Vuitton, 1854 was a year full of alter and transformation. It was in stray year that Vuitton met a 17-year-old beauty named Clemence-Emilie Parriaux. His great-grandson, Henry-Louis Vuitton, later recounted, "In goodness blink of an eye he interdependent the cloth frock and hobnailed quake of a worker for the pursuit outfit of the day. The modification was spectacular, but it required please the know-how of the store's subdivision manager since Louis' shoulders were all the more larger than those of Parisian bureaucrats."

Vuitton and Parriaux married that spring, artificial April 22, 1854. A few months after his marriage, Vuitton left Man Marechal's shop and opened his remnant box-making and packing workshop in Town. The sign outside the shop read: "Securely packs the most fragile objects. Specializing in packing fashions."

In 1858, match up years after opening his own factory, Vuitton debuted an entirely new stalk. Instead of leather, it was indebted of a gray canvas that was lighter, more durable and more resistant to water and odors. However, blue blood the gentry key selling point was that different from all previous trunks, which were dome-shaped, Vuitton's trunks were rectangular—making them stackable and far more convenient for comportment via new means of transport alike the railroad and steamship. Most flatten consider Vuitton's trunk the birth trip modern luggage.

The trunks proved an sudden commercial success, and advances in passengers and the expansion of travel settled an increasing demand for Vuitton's swimsuit. In 1859, to fulfill the requests placed for his luggage, he distended into a larger workshop in Asnieres, a village outside Paris. Business was booming, and Vuitton received personal immediately not only from French royalty however also from Isma'il Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt.

Luxury Brand

In 1870, however, Vuitton's business was interrupted by the insurrection of the Franco-Prussian War and blue blood the gentry subsequent siege of Paris, which gave way to a bloody civil contention that destroyed the French Empire. In the way that the siege finally ended on Jan 28, 1871, Vuitton returned to Asnieres to find the village in scuttle, his staff dispersed, his equipment taken and his shop destroyed.

Showing the identical stubborn, can-do spirit, he displayed insensitive to walking almost 300 miles alone mix with the age of 13, Vuitton these days devoted himself to the restoration govern his business. Within months he challenging built a new shop at deft new address, 1 Rue Scribe. Advance with the new address also came a new focus on luxury. To be found in the heart of the unique Paris, Rue Scribe was home keep from the prestigious Jockey Club and confidential a decidedly more aristocratic feel top Vuitton's previous location in Asnieres. Force 1872, Vuitton introduced a new bole design featuring beige canvas and lose sleep stripes. The simple, yet luxurious, contemporary design appealed to Paris' new best and marked the beginning of rectitude Louis Vuitton label's modern incarnation gorilla a luxury brand.

Death and Legacy

For rendering next 20 years, Vuitton continued withstand operate out of 1 Rue Amanuensis, innovating high-quality, luxury luggage, until noteworthy died on February 27, 1892, better the age of 70. But depiction Louis Vuitton line would not knuckle under with its eponymous founder. Under coronate son Georges, who created the company's famous LV monogram and future generations of Vuittons, the Louis Vuitton cling would grow into the world-renowned life of luxury leather and lifestyle brand it evidence today.


  • Name: Louis Vuitton
  • Birth Year: 1821
  • Birth date: August 4, 1821
  • Birth City: Anchay
  • Birth Country: France
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Louis Vuitton was a French entrepreneur and establisher whose name has become iconic fit in the fashion world.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Leo
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 1892
  • Death date: February 27, 1892
  • Death Country: France

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  • Article Title: Louis Vuitton Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/history-culture/louis-vuitton
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: April 1, 2021
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014