Phaidon
Andy Warhol “Giant” Size
The visual biography of the century’s most consequential artist.
$150.00
Hugo d'Alesi, poster for the PLM railway. via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Abrams
Louis Vuitton: The Birth of Modern Luxury
How a trunk-maker became the model for every luxury house since.
$110.00
Available · worldwide delivery
- Author
- Paul-Gérard Pasols
- Publisher
- Abrams
- Published
- January 2012
- Pages
- 0
- Format
- Hardcover
- Size
- Standard
- Language
- English
The Library Essay
Luxury Started With Luggage
Louis Vuitton opened his Paris workshop in 1854 as a packer and trunk-maker, and his innovation was severely practical, a flat-topped waterproof trunk that could be stacked in the hold of a ship or the boot of a carriage. The empire of desire came later, built on that utility: the Damier check of 1888 and the Monogram canvas his son Georges devised in 1896, both invented in large part to defeat counterfeiters.
Paul-Gérard Pasols tells the house's history from the workshop outward, through the age of the steamer and the motorcar to the global company of today, in an edition Abrams updated in 2012. It is the founding case study of modern luxury, a craft business that became a symbol without ever quite letting go of the trunk.
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