An inside look at Louis Vuitton’s handbag workshop in Texas
ALVARADO, Texas — Natural light shines through the windows and reflects on artisans hard at work at the Louis Vuitton Rochambeau Ranch in Alvarado. The luxury handbag maker says it designed the building to enhance creativity for its 300 artisans.
Louis Vuitton gave the media an up-close look at the detail that goes into creating a handbag recently. The ranch opened its doors for free one-hour tours for the public that were all booked. The tours were part of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s Les Journées Particulières, which translates to “special days.”
The company said it plans to expand the ranch to allow more training and production and to meet a target of 1,000 artisans in Alvarado. The expansion will take the ranch to 256 acres and is expected to open next year.
This is the fifth time the French maker of handbags, wallets and accessories has offered tours of its stores and manufacturing facilities, but the first time it’s done tours in Alvarado. Louis Vuitton wouldn’t allow on-the-record interviews with artisans and workers during the media tour.
“It offers a rare opportunity to visit the actual locations where the magic occurs and gain precious insights into how our artisans shape dreams that, in turn, make our world a more beautiful place to be in,” said Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, in a statement.
The walls inside the ranch tell the story of Louis Vuitton. There are photos of the French general who helped the 13 colonies with independence during the Revolutionary War, who the ranch is named for. The ranch went by Rockin’ Z when LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton bought it. There are also photos of the man himself, Louis Vuitton. He’s best known for creating trunks. In 1859, he expanded his operations by opening a workshop in the center of Paris with 20 employees. Louis Vuitton reported over $54 billion in sales for the first nine months of 2022, and it has 156,000 employees globally, 33,000 of which are in the U.S.
The workers in Alvarado are grouped into stations for painting, cutting and other procedures. Some of the company’s bags require over 350 steps to complete, the company said.
Colored leathers and threads on spools line the walls, and each work station has a small bag with the scissors, paint brushes, sewing kits and detailing tools the artisans use.
New artisans undergo five weeks of training at the School of Leather Craftsmanship. For the first two weeks, artisans are taught the basic use of Louis Vuitton’s machinery. The third week is reserved for learning how to handpaint products. The final two are devoted to mastering a particular item.
All of the leather hides are imported from Northern Europe and inspected for imperfections, the company said. Hides that are rejected for stretch marks or blemishes are saved for training the artisans.
The Rochambeau Ranch is one of three Louis Vuitton ranches in the U.S.; the other two are in California.