Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton began by making luggage for a world learning to travel farther. Founded in Paris in 1854 by the trunk maker whose name it bears, the house built its reputation on protecting clothes in transit. Flat-topped trunks made stacking easier, while canvas coverings offered a lighter alternative to leather.

The practical business of packing became a language of luxury, with locks, reinforced corners, and patterned surfaces identifying the traveler as surely as the destination. In 1896, the founder’s son, Georges Vuitton, introduced the Monogram canvas as a tribute to his father. Its interlocking initials and floral motifs would become the house’s most recognizable signature.

The move from packing wardrobes to designing them came much later. Appointed artistic director in 1997, Marc Jacobs led Louis Vuitton’s expansion into ready-to-wear, giving the luggage house a new life in fashion. His collaborations with Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami also established an enduring approach to its heritage. The Monogram could be treated as an artist’s surface, open to graffiti or a change of palette, while remaining unmistakably Vuitton.

Menswear developed its own identity within that expansion. Paul Helbers directed the men’s studio under Jacobs from 2006 to 2011, before Kim Jones took over. Jones connected the house’s travel heritage to the way men actually dressed, bringing technical sportswear into a wardrobe of luxurious tailoring. His fall-winter 2017 collaboration with Supreme gave that approach its most public expression. Skate culture and the Paris trunk maker shared billing, with box logos and Monogram appearing across clothing and luggage.

Virgil Abloh’s appointment in 2018 changed who could see themselves at the center of that world. The house’s first Black menswear artistic director, he approached luxury through the interests of a generation raised on sneakers and hip-hop. His spring-summer 2019 debut used a rainbow runway and references to The Wizard of Oz to frame a new beginning. Tailoring shared space with utility harnesses, and the rigid trunk became a soft bag worn close to the body. His tenure, which ended with his death in 2021, treated youthful aspiration as a subject worthy of the house’s craftsmanship.

Pharrell Williams became men’s creative director in 2023, extending the relationship between Vuitton and popular culture through his own experience in music and fashion. His debut on Paris’s Pont Neuf placed the Damier check across tailoring and workwear, while colorful Speedy bags brought a luggage-house signature into everyday dressing. The scale of the spectacle was new; the attraction of a recognizable Vuitton object was generations old. Across these different chapters, the house has expanded from furnishing a journey to dressing the person taking it.