The Art Of Travel

Louis Vuitton has made trunks for everyone from Empress Eugénie to Elizabeth Taylor. Coco Marett digs through the brand’s archive to learn the secrets of the craft— and a little about the trunks’ famous owners.

With budget airlines, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it weekend trips and our growing affinity for sweatpants, travel, for the most part, isn’t as glamorous as it used to be. In the days of voyaging by ship or traversing continents by train, travel was inextricably linked to adventure. To prepare for such epic expeditions, discerning travellers turned to trunk makers like Louis Vuitton.

At just 13 years of age, Louis Vuitton himself set out on foot from his home in the Jura region of France for Paris so he could gain work as an apprentice trunk-maker and packer. After making a name for himself working under a renowned trunk maker by the name of Monsieur Marechal, Vuitton branched out and opened his own workshop. A sign out the front of his first atelier read: “Securely packs the most fragile objects. Specialising in packing fashions.”

At a time when all trunks were made with a rounded top, Vuitton revolutionised travel by introducing flat-top rectangular trunks that were easier to stack. He also made them lighter and weatherproof with flexible poplar-wood frames and waterproofed canvas sides. The canvas came in various finishes, including solid Trianon grey hemp oil, red-striped cloth, chequered Damier canvas and, of course, the iconic monogram canvas. Remarkably, many of these same materials are still used to make Louis Vuitton’s luggage today.