13 OCT-27 FEB: LOUIS VUITTON/100 LEGENDARY TRUNKS AT CARNAVALET MUSEUM, PARIS

  | Oct 15, 2010

Portrait of Louis Vuitton (1821-1892), founder of the House of Vuitton © LOUIS VUITTON ARCHIVES

S Lock Detail of a Damier Canvas Trunk for Women around 1900 © LOUIS VUITTON COLLECTION / NAOTOKA KUMAGAI

In the courtyard of the Asnières workshops, around 1888, Louis, Georges and Gaston L. Vuitton (sitting on a Bed trunk) © LOUIS VUITTON ARCHIVES

Corners of 4 trunks (the four historic canvases from the House of Louis Vuitton): Trianon grey canvas trunk (1854), striped canvas trunk (1872), damier canvas trunk (1888), Monogram canvas trunk (1896) © LOUIS VUITTON COLLECTION / ANTOINE JARRIER Copyright: COPYRIGHT

At Les Bouffes Parisiens, Miss Andrée Mielly poses alongside a lady’s Hat Trunk, around 1910 © LOUIS VUITTON ARCHIVES

Details Secretary Trunk to hold 36 pairs of shoes 1925 Monogram Canvas 58 x 38 x116 cm Louis Vuitton Collection © LOUIS VUITTON / PATRICK GRIES Rights : ALL RIGHTS

Pony Trunk 
Monogram Canvas, March 1922. Ordered by the Rancy Circus.
Louis Vuitton archives © Louis Vuitton archives Rights : ALL RIGHTS

Improvised boat to go to Djerba, around 1923
Photo by Jean du Taillis for the Dunlop guides: Motor Tourism in Algeria & Tunisia. © Louis Vuitton archives / Jean du Taillis Rights : ALL RIGHTS

Mars resin Trunk, Yuko Torii, 2004 Louis Vuitton Collection © LOUIS VUITTON / PHILIPPE JUMIN

"A Jacques Henri Lartigue fantasy on the Louis Vuitton theme" 1978 © JACQUES-HENRI LARTIGUE © MINISTRY OF CULTURE-FRANCE / AAJHL

The Tea Case made for the Maharaja of Baroda 1926 Grained leather 45.5 x 17 x 5 x 31 cm Louis Vuitton Collection © LOUIS VUITTON / PATRICK GRIES Rights : ALL RIGHTS

The volume of a Louis Vuitton trunk can be defined by the nature of its contents, the means of transport, its handling and the way it is opened. The combination of these factors leads to various lines of luggage. © LOUIS VUITTON / PATRICK GRIES Rights : ALL RIGHTS

Book Cover

The Louis Vuitton Trunk is one of the most iconic travel accessories in the world and has many stories to tell. As a way to capture the transformations and journeys of the trunk, a book entitled Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks or Louis Vuitton: 100 Malles De Légende will be coming out this October.The book showcases the most beautiful creations of the House through more than eight hundred photographs. Many incredible pieces are featured here such as the trunk bed, the wardrobe trunk, the teabox, toiletry trunk, circus trunks, and more. Beyond the item itself, It also extends to some of the prominent figures that were fortunate enough to own them: Ernest Hemingway, Leopold Stokowski, Damien Hirst, movie stars from Douglas Fairbanks to Sharon Stone and couturiers from Jeanne Lanvin to Karl Lagerfeld.

In addition to the book, Louis Vuitton has also produced 30 reproductions of labels of the hotel’s private collection in a postcard format. Presented in the same type of box that of the book, the cards evoke much of the art of the travel as the grand hotels of the world. Hotel de Crillon in Paris and Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok are just some of the places that are represented in the tradition of sticking labels on the trunks.

The book will be available from October 13, 2010 to mark the opening of the exhibition “A Journey into the capital, Louis Vuitton and Paris” in the Carnavalet Museum (13 October 2010 to February 27, 2011 Musée Carnavalet 23, rue de Sévigné, 75003 Paris)

www.louisvuitton.com

By Paulo Meixedo