The 162-year journey of the LV trunk
The life and times of the Louis Vuitton trunk
Virgil Abloh’s tenure as artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton has so far been defined by a convergence of the Chicagoan’s irreverent design ethos and the august Parisian brand’s aesthetic traditions.
At January’s autumn/winter 2020 show, in Paris, alongside a skew on the traditional codes of men’s tailoring, Abloh offered his take on the iconic Louis Vuitton trunk. There were miniaturised trunks, trunks in sun-kissed, dégradés colours, trunks gently curved like bananas and trunks that were actually backpacks. One, the size of a computer tower and available in a sky blue motif or high-shine mirror finish, came with the optional extra of a two-man tent, adorned, archetypically, with the classic gold LV monogram.
But a tent is just the tip of the iceberg. Recently, Louis Vuitton has unveiled myriad different iterations of its trunks, each designed for supremely modern, not to mention esoteric uses. At the end of last year, there was the Sneaker Trunk, a wardrobe-style creation designed to house 14 pairs of trainers — eight hightops and six low-tops — in transparent, monogrammed drawers. There have been trunks designed specifically to cocoon the Fifa World Cup, the NBA Championship Trophy, the Roland-Garros trophies and even the Summoner’s Cup, the prize for winning the League of Legends World Championship (for those with more traditional hobbies, that’s a video game).
There are trunks for cigars, trunks that fold out to create a festival-ready DJ set-up with turntables for vinyl and a mixing desk, and even waterproof trunks, designed to be filled with soil and offer the most opulent carapace a flowerbed could hope for.
Seemingly, the Louis Vuitton trunk is as relevant, and prominent, as it has been at any point in the company’s history. Impressive when you consider that the dynasty began with boxy luggage. After 17 years’ experience at another of Paris’s layetier-emballeurs, or “packers”, Louis Vuitton founded his company in 1854 with the intention of making lighter, stronger luggage to meet the needs of a newly gregarious, increasingly mobile travelling class. His trunks were clad in oil-painted canvas, which addressed the issue of weight, and equipped with a flat top (rather than the usual domed design) to allow for easy stacking in a train’s baggage car or a ship’s hold. By 1888, Vuitton introduced the still-present Damier check to set his work aside from that of copycat brands. Then in 1896, Georges Vuitton, son of the founder, created the monogram that endures to this day.
In 2020, just as it was in the mid-19th century, every Louis Vuitton trunk — including all of those on special order — is constructed at the company’s atelier in Asnières -sur-Seine, northwest Paris. Craftspeople use poplar, beech and African okoume woods to construct the body of a trunk, before the leather or canvas is applied, and the corners are reinforced with “lozines” — external runners fitted in place by individually hand-hammered brass nails. New technologies have been introduced, of course — leathers used are now cut by a laser-guided blade to allow for optimal surface area usage, for example — but the instinctual savoir faire of Louis Vuitton is still at its most astonishing in the Asnières workshop.
Beyond the luxury, though. Beyond the hours of painstaking craftsmanship, or the centuries of heritage, or the status that comes from owning one, beyond even the tent, what the Louis Vuitton trunk offers is reassurance. A sign that no matter how mad the world becomes, there are few things lovelier or more useful than a well-made box. ○