Louis Vuitton is a fashion icon and one of the most popular luxury brands in the world. Everyone from business professionals to fashionistas finds the brand desirable.
The brand has, over the years, managed to create a strong customer base across the world owing to its impeccable quality. Looking at the success of the company, which has a value of 23.4 billion as of 2022, no one can tell it was started by a man who was homeless in his teenage years, uneducated and slept in a forest.
Louis Vuitton was born in 1821 and grew up working on his family farm in a small village called Anchay in eastern France. His father was a farmer and miller, while his mother was a hat maker.
From dusk to dawn, Louis would spend every day on the farm trying to make enough food to help feed his family. When he was ten years, his mother passed away, making things more difficult for the young boy who had never stepped into a class for learning.
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His father remarried another woman who was violent and manipulative towards Louis. He bore with the brut life for three good years. He eventually got enough of the stepmother’s mediocrities and escaped from home when he was 13 years old, headed to Paris in search of a better life. He had no money and was forced to walk 225 miles without food.
He would do odd jobs on the way in exchange for food. He found jobs with artisans and craftsmen who taught him how to work with metal, stone, and fabrics. He was homeless and slept in the woods as he had no money for housing.
While in Paris, he found another job and worked as an apprentice box maker. This job gave him an opportunity to meet high-profile individuals. He worked hard on his role and ended up being the favourite box maker for the Empress of France Eugenie De Montijo, who later appointed him as her personal box maker.
Louis’s star started to shine, and this was indeed his moment of pride. He saved enough and opened his workshop in Paris, and began selling his own products. At this time, he had built a reputation for his products and had created a strong connection with the upper class.
His products were considered elegant and started attracting customers from around the world. The demand was so huge that he could not meet it alone. He hired 20 employees to help him make high-quality products for his customers.
Tragedy hit when the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870, and what had turned sweet for Louis was now soared. The company that he had struggled to build was totally destroyed, and equipment was stolen.
He was left with nothing.
He, however, did not give up and used his savings to rebuild his company. He opened his company in a new wealthy location in Paris. He worked there until his death in the 1890s.
His legacy was able to live on through his son Georges who took over the family business. And like the father like the son, George worked hard in his father’s company and expanded it globally. The products became popular that other box makers started to make counterfeits.
To curb this, George introduced the current iconic interlocking LV monogram to make it hard to copy. The LV is the initials of his father’s name. He introduced new designs such as bags for everyday use, a champagne bag, and a redesign of a Coco Chanel commission, the Alma.
After the death Of George Vuitton, his son Gaston Louis took over before passing it to his children Henry Vuitton, Jacques Vuitton, and Claude Vuitton, who have maintained the company’s success for years. In 6 years, LV sales soared from 20 million to over 260 million dollars, and by 1987 it had reached over 1 Billion dollars in sales.
LV has expanded to wear, watches, jewellery, and more luxurious goods and is currently the number 1 luxury brand in the world with a value of US$ 23.4 billion.