Under The Parisian Sun

A retrospective of Louis Vuitton’s life and legacy as we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the design genius.

- ​​​​​​​NIKITA NAWAWI

Everybody loves an underdog story. To root for the timid high school girl as she overcomes her fears and claims her spot in the spotlight, the scrawny boy on the team before he hits a home run or the rebellious teen who leaves his home in the isolated, heavily-wooded mountain enclave in the French Jura region in pursuit of a better life in the bustling, obscenely extravagant Paris. Louis Vuitton, the very personification of modern luxury brand Louis Vuitton, was indeed an underdog. He’s the boy we have all been rooting for, one whose story we have seen evolved into an epic.

The young Vuitton was no older than 14 years old when he set off for Paris. Taking with him the carpenting skills he inherited from his family, he began the arduous journey, travelling to the capital on foot before finding himself somewhere between Place de la Madeleine and Rue Saint-Honoré a couple of years later. It was there that he landed the apprenticeship with the trunk-maker extraordinaire Romain Marechal, further honing his craft while studying the social, political and economic shifts around him as he calculated his next move.