$26,000,000,000
Louis Vuitton
Net Worth
Started in (City)
Paris
Started in (Country)
France
Incorporation Date
01st December, 1854
Bankruptcy Date
-
Founders
- Louis Vuitton
About
Louis Vuitton or shortened to LV, is a French fashion house and luxury goods company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone boutiques, lease departments in high-end department stores, and through the e-commerce section of its website.
From humble beginnings in the French countryside, Louis Vuitton began as a box-maker and packer who founded the luxury brand over 150 years ago. Vuitton’s skill, innovation, and determination led way for him, and soon his caliber was recognized and his signature trunks coveted by the world’s elite. The Louis Vuitton house has expanded its offering to include bags, clothing, shoes, accessories, and jewelry, making it one of the most valuable luxury brands in the world.
Beginning
Vuitton was born on August 4, 1821, in Anchay, a small working-class settlement in the east of France. His father, Xavier Vuitton, was a farmer, and his mother, Coronne Gaillard - died when he was 10 years old. At the age of 13, Vuitton left home for Paris because he was tired of provincial life and his strict stepmother. The 292-mile journey took him two years on foot with stops to carry out odd jobs to support himself along the way. He started apprenticing for Monsieur Maréchal, a successful box-making and packing workshop. At the time, horse-drawn carriages, boats, and trains were the main modes of transportation, and baggage was handled roughly. Travelers called upon craftsmen to pack and protect their objects. This provided Vuitton the opportunity to master its skills. Louis Vuitton quickly became a valued craftsman at the Parisian atelier of Monsieur Maréchal.
In 1854 Vuitton married 17-year-old Clemence-Emilie Parriaux. Louis Vuitton stayed for 17 years at the shop he had apprenticed before opening his workshop at 4 Rue Neuve-des-Capucines near the Place Vendome. The sign outside read: "Securely packs the most fragile objects. Specialising in packing fashions". He also began creating his trunks in canvas instead of leather, which gave them the advantage of being hard-wearing and waterproof. The early success of Vuitton led to the 1859 opening of his atelier in Asnières. Just northeast of the center of Paris, the workshop started with 20 employees. In 1900, there were nearly 100 people and by 1914 there were 225. That place was both the family residence and the cradle of the company and the Asnières site has been the symbol of the Vuitton family’s personal and commercial success since 1859. It is still where products are crafted today. While the family home has been preserved and is part of a private museum, 170 craftsmen work in the Asnières workshop, designing and creating leather goods and special orders for clients around the world.
Road to Success
Vuitton gained recognition when he introduced stackable rectangular-shaped trunks to a market. Demand for the innovative and convenient trunk, which addressed the requirements of an increasingly popular group of people who travel by train. In 1867 Vuitton was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle, an international exposition organized by Napoleon and held in Paris, which further increased the popularity of his work. Vuitton introduced a trunk in a beige and red striped canvas in 1872. The design appealed to the new Parisian elite and helped secure the brand’s position as a luxury offering. In 1889 Vuitton won a gold medal and the grand prize at the Exposition Universelle, which once again helped to boost the popularity of his work.
When Vuitton died (February 27, 1892) he left control of the company to his son, Georges Vuitton. In 1886, Georges Vuitton revolutionized luggage locks with an ingenious closing system that turned travel trunks into real treasure chests. In 1896, four years after Louis Vuitton’s death, the company introduced the first monogram canvas. The “LV” paired with geometric shapes has become the brand’s most iconic print. This monogram was made in response to widespread copying of the brand’s patterns. Georges created the famous LV monogram canvas - featuring diamonds, circles, and flowers - to distinguish the brand’s products. The brand has experimented with a variety of trunk finishes over the years: solid Trianon gray hemp oil, red-striped cloth, checkered Damier canvas, and the classic monogram canvas. Bag shapes that remain popular fashion staples today were introduced throughout the 1900s and some of them are ’ The Steamer bag’, ’ The Keepall bag', ’ The Noé bag’, and ’ The Pappillon bag’.
As technology advanced, a supple version of the monogram canvas was used for the coating process in 1959. This allowed it to be used for purses, bags, and wallets. In 1997 Marc Jacobs was appointed the house’s first creative director and was charged with introducing men’s and women’s ready-to-wear collections. Jacobs collaborated with designer Stephen Sprouse in 2001 to create a limited-edition line of bags featuring "Louis Vuitton" written in graffiti over the monogram pattern.
The house established a strong celebrity base for the brand under Jacobs’ direction. Many models, actors, and musicians have been the face of the brand. For the Core Values campaign, introduced in 2007 and aimed at showcasing the brand’s travel roots, celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Bono, Sean Connery, Keith Richards, and Catherine Deneuve have appeared. Other campaigns have included Natalia Vodianova, Christy Turlington, and Kate Elson for autumn-winter 2010-11; Madonna for spring-summer 2009; Diane Kruger, Chloe Sevigny, Christina Ricci, and Scarlett Johanssen for spring-summer 2007; Scarlett Johanssen for autumn-winter 2004-05 and Jennifer Lopez for autumn-winter 2003-04. Fashionable figures like Coco Chanel, Hélène Rochas, and the Rothschild family all sported Louis Vuitton luggage. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s wardrobe case had plenty of room for Louis Vuitton bags. The brand counted Coco Chanel as a patron.
In 2012 the house won a landmark ruling in the United States protecting it from large-scale international counterfeiting. The ruling helps stop the import of goods into the US that illegally bear the brand’s trademarks, and penalizes companies that facilitate the trade of those goods.
Challenges
He faced his first commercial setback during the Franco-Prussian War, from 1870-71. Vuitton’s workshop was looted and destroyed. Once the war ended he set up a new workshop.
The global luxury and fashion industries have been dealt a massive coronavirus blow that is affecting both the demand and supply sides of their business, a historic disruption that will require them to reboot their operations once the pandemic fades.
Demand from Chinese consumers, who accounted for 90% of global luxury market growth in 2019, has fallen sharply. Many factories that employ tens of thousands of workers who make shoes, handbags, and scarves in Italy, France, and parts of Asia are at a standstill under government-imposed lockdowns. Thousands of stores in the U.S., Europe, and Asia are temporarily shuttered. And worried consumers, faced with lost jobs and strained finances, are buying fewer luxury items online.
On April 16, 2020, Louis Vuitton, the world's biggest luxury goods company and owner of Louis Vuitton was one of the first to provide a glimpse into the destruction wrought by the viral outbreak. The French company reported a 15% decline in its first-quarter revenue and said it would cut its 2019 dividend by 30%.
Failures
Louis Vuitton, was considered in South Korea as one of the big high-end designer brands that are typically supposed to appeal to the top one-percent. Louis Vuitton has recently been struggling to make an impression among local consumers, with its products reaching a level of ubiquity unseen elsewhere in the world.
The French brand’s popularity was unparalleled only a couple of years back, mostly among younger Koreans, but eventually grew to a point where it became too popular; its bags were even given the nickname of “3-second bags”, a sarcastic observation of how it only takes three seconds to find someone with an LV bag on the street. Louis Vuitton’s latest business performance also speaks to its waning popularity.
In 2016, LV sales dropped by 2 percent at a major department store franchise (undisclosed) here, lagging far behind its competitors. LV’s growth rate was 3.2 percent for another department store group. Louis Vuitton lost its appeal as a luxury brand after its bags became too common.
Achievements
- Louis Vuitton won a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle, an international exposition organized by Napoleon in 1867.
- In 1889, he was honored with a gold medal and the grand prize at the Exposition Universelle.
Subsidies
- LVHM
CEOs
- Michael Bruke
- Bernard Arnault