How A Louis Vuitton Case Is Made

by Annie Scott (RSS feed)
Nov 16th 2008 at 4:02PM

Vintage Louis Vuitton from Bentleys London

Louis Vuitton makes a case for everything. Really. If there's something you want to carry in a Louis Vuitton case, they will probably make one for you.

The only criteria-strictly enforced to honor the original spirit of the 150-year-old company-are that the item is portable and that its raison d'être is transport. "We are in the business of movement," says Patrick-Louis Vuitton, a fifth-generation member of the founding family who oversees all of LV's custom projects. "A special order is a compromise between desires and needs from the client and our aesthetic and technical requirements." - Men's Vogue

Louis Vuitton makes about 450 special-order cases every year at their Asnières, France workshop. The process of creating a perfect case for a client's needs can take four to five months, but their policy is to never exceed eight.

Over the years, cases have been created for everything from hookah pipes to a portable altar for a French priest heading to a desert archaeological dig in the 1920's.

Louis Vuitton won't make just anything, though. If they don't like your request (say, to put little LV's all over the interior of your car, a move similar to the one that ended up with Britney Spears on the losing end of a Vuitton lawsuit), they'll modify the idea and make a suggestion - their polite version of refusal.

[via Men's Vogue]

Tags: bags, case, cases, louis vuitton, LouisVuitton, luggage, suitcase, suitcases