In 1837, Louis Vuitton, who was born in a French carpenter's family, wanted to go to Paris when he was 14 years old. Because he could not afford the fare, he could only walk on foot and rely on odd jobs to survive along the way. livelihood. But Louis has a very "big" dream to soothe his soul: to open a small shop of his own.
His early life in Paris was still routine. After spending several years as an apprentice in a luggage workshop, he began to serve the French royal family as a clothes binder.
At that time, Napoleon II ascended the throne, and the expansion of France's territory aroused Queen Ugénie's interest in traveling to Europe. However, the joy of traveling is often the same as that of others.
The poor boy Louis Vuitton relied on his own craftsmanship to cleverly tie the Queen's clothes into the suitcase. Because of this, Louis, a young man from the countryside, quickly gained the attention and trust of Queen Ujieni.
While serving the Queen, the joys and sorrows of the travelers caught the attention of Louis Vuitton. At that time, the revolution in transportation was in the ascendant, and taking the train became the most fashionable choice for travelers. However, this also brought them a lot of trouble: either the suitcases would wrinkle their clothes, or their luggage would be damaged again and again in the bumps of the train. fall. Louis Vuitton believed that he could relieve more people from the worries of travel, so he ended his service to the palace in 1854 and founded his first leather goods store in Paris. The main product was flat-lid luggage.
This box made of "Trianongrey" canvas soon became the first choice item for the traveling aristocrats of Paris' upper class society.
Four years later, Louis Vuitton expanded the scale of its leather goods store and established its first factory in Asnières, a suburb of Paris. During this period, the design and production processes focused more on solving practical problems of travelers. Based on practical design concepts, Louis Vuitton continued to deepen its fashion and professionalism.
In 1871, Louis Vuitton opened a new store on Scribe Avenue; four years later the store opened in central London. The company's development provides a more solid foundation for product innovation: the brand's classic product, the hard suitcase, was born in 1889. It adapts to the bumps of long-distance travel and brings travelers the peace of mind and comfort they need most - so far, it has It’s all the pride of Louis Vuitton.
Louis Vuitton’s son, Georges L. Vuitton, inherited the family tradition of ingenuity and showed his talent for small inventions. In 1890, he invented the special lock "5-tumbler" - its characteristic is that only one key can be used to open the Louis Vuitton suitcase owned by the customer, preventing travelers from tying a lot of trousers on their pants. Key trouble.
Just as Louis Vuitton was gradually establishing its brand image, its success was stolen by greedy imitators. However, this further stimulated George Vuitton's creativity - in 1896, he printed the famous "LV" trademark on Monogram canvas, which made Louis Vuitton begin to inject people's concepts as a brand symbol.
Excellent brands are always full of inspiration for the future. The development process of Louis Vuitton is an appropriate interpretation of this sentence-the lightweight and flexible Steamer travel bag was launched in 1901 and became the first handbag in later generations. Pioneer; eight years later, the Vuitton family made the Kashmir travel blanket from silk and wool, which became the pioneer of scarves and quilts in later generations.
In 1914, Louis Vuitton’s dream store finally became the world’s largest travel leather goods store at 70 Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris. This year, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Louis Vuitton, two specially-made oversized suitcases are placed on both sides of the building, which is stunning.
When it was the turn of Gaston L. Vuitton, the third generation descendant, to show his family’s creativity, the traditional industry of handicrafts gradually took on the industrial form of modern society. Caston had close ties with European artists of the time and often invited them to participate in his design process, striving to transform his favorite classical elements into enduring fashion classics. Unconsciously, Louis Vuitton's products are becoming more and more "luxury".
Of course, business philosophy is particularly important in the 20th century. While those famous CEOs in the future were still struggling to move forward, Louis Vuitton's managers had begun to quietly explore business methods suitable for an old brand: In 1984, Louis Vuitton was listed on the Paris and New York stock markets at the same time. The following year it became a holding company and transferred its travel goods and leather goods business to its subsidiary LouisVuitton Malletier. In 1987, Louis Vuitton, the Moet Champagne Company founded in 1743, and the Hennessy brand *** born in 1765 formed the LVHM (Mo?t Hennessy Louis Vuitton) Group. Two years later, the French Arnault family began to take charge of the world's largest luxury goods group.
Louis Vuitton, which left the Vuitton family, already has brand vitality, but it is beginning to face a unique problem in the fashion industry - high-quality designs recognized by the industry often fail commercially. The result is Good designers have to pack up and leave. American designer Mizrahi worked for Chanel for ten years and launched many works that made his colleagues "crazy with joy." However, he had to leave in 1998 because he did not bring commercial profits.
Therefore, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault believes that the reason why Louis Vuitton still remains in the lead so far is: “To do well in our industry, we must be able to Compatible with water and fire minds - because they are natural enemies, designers do not want to be restricted in their creations, while companies need good management."
In fact, 150 years of experience have not only created a legendary brand, but Louis Vuitton's operators have also gradually developed unique vision and insight. In 1997, the company's board of directors decided to hire Marc Jacobs to join. This seems a bit risky - Mark is a representative of "fashion minimalism", and the design concept he advocates is far from the complicated aristocratic design style.
Mark began to implement the minimalist philosophy of "starting from scratch" in March 1998. For example, adding small metal decorations to traditional Monogram products. "Vuitton has always been a symbol of social status," Mark said, "but now it has become more sexy and seductive."
This idea generated a turnover of at least US$300 million last year alone, and has received Strong support from marketing managers - In the global fashion industry, what became popular in the late 1990s was no longer the noble royal style, but youth and vitality.
Today, the entire fashion industry has not yet emerged from the recession, but the world's largest fashion and luxury goods company is still undisputedly known as a "money-making machine." The just-released 2003 financial report shows that LVMH's revenue increased by 30% last year, especially the Vuitton brand series products, which achieved a record operating profit margin of 45%. At the same time, Louis Vuitton is also working hard to expand globally and plans to add more than ten branches around the world this year. Developing countries are strategic locations. A second store may appear in Russia and the first store will open in Mumbai, India. .