This fascinating publication presents the roles two men have played in turning a small workshop in nineteenth-century Paris into one of the most successful and recognized brands in the world. Known for both craftsmanship and must-have high design, Louis Vuitton the luxury house was started by its eponymous founder in 1854. The first half of this publication traces the innovations by Vuitton, who turned the little-known guild profession of emballeur (packer) into the foremost luxury trunk maker in Paris, with a clientele that included in his lifetime the French nobility as well as the elite of a prosperous empire. Prime and never-before-seen examples of Vuitton’s craftsmanship, along with the fashion that went into them, are the highlights of these chapters. The second half of the book examines the role of Marc Jacobs as Louis Vuitton’s creative director (since 1997), who took the Louis Vuitton house into a new era with a series of collaborations with artists and designers—such as Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, and Stephen Sprouse—as well as designing a line of highly successful and desired clothing for the company. By examining two divergent but often similar careers one hundred years apart, Louis Vuitton / Marc Jacobs is not only a layered study of the evolution of a luxury brand in the past 150 years but also a celebration of technical and design innovations in the new century.

Marc Jacobs' reputation is that of a rule-breaker. Rule-breaking aside, critics have hailed Jacobs as one of the most influential fashion designers of his generation. This is a biography of his life and career.

For over 150 years, Louis Vuitton's monographed bags have been associated with style and luxury. Born in 1821, he had left home at 13 to seek his fortune in Paris where he became an apprentice box-maker which eventually led him to introductions at the French Royal Court. With royal endorsement, Louis opened of his first workshop in 1854 where his skills and innovations established his brand as one of Europe's most popular. Passing his passion for crafting beautiful luggage onto his son, Georges, and later his grandson Gaston-Louis, they ensured the company continued to grow, surviving two world wars, to become the luxury brand it's renowned for. Louis Vuitton stores opened in cities throughout the world and expanded into other high-end brands. The merger in 1987 with Möet Hennessy created the megabrand LVMH, and in 1997 the appointment of Marc Jacobs launched Louis Vuitton into the world of fashion. "The Louis Vuitton woman is more about a quality - a quality within some women that needs to come forward, to be noticed and recognised." Marc Jacobs "There's a lot of baggage that comes along with our family, but it's like Louis Vuitton baggage." Kim Kardashian "Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury." Louis Vuitton

This monograph documents Louis Vuitton's highly visible collaborations with an elite group of artists, architects and photographers, including Takashi Murakami, Julie Verhoven and Anne Leibovitz.

The definitive work on the collaborations between Louis Vuitton and artists, designers, architects, and photographers. This newly revised and updated edition brings the previous book up to the present, now celebrating the most recent and inspiring collaborations with Nicolas Ghesquière, Frank Gehry, Yayoi Kusama, and Steven Meisel, among others. The more than eighty collaborators featured in this book comprise an A to Z of Vuitton’s creative collaborations, especially from the last decade, with significant chapters devoted to the work of Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, Takashi Murakami and other key collaborators. Never forgetting the long tradition of the house, the period covered by the book—from the late 1990s through the present day—will describe the role that Louis Vuitton is playing in a crucial moment in global fashion. Now with 536 pages, this edition features more than 130 pages of stunning new imagery that showcases the increasingly symbiotic relationship between fashion, art, and design.

Little Book of Louis Vuitton is the pocket-sized and fully illustrated story of one of the world's most luxurious fashion houses. Louis Vuitton's monogrammed bags have been seen on the arms of celebrities and royals alike for over 150 years. From the young Louis seeking his fortune in Paris through to two world wars, the Great Depression, the Jazz Age and the Swinging Sixties, there is no era in which this most opulent of brands hasn't thrived. Detailing the global expansion of Louis Vuitton in the 1980s, the creation of the powerful fashion conglomerate LVMH, and the appointment in 1997 of Marc Jacobs, this is the story of a transformation from luggage company to high-fashion label. Louis Vuitton's continued evolution under the creative direction of Nicolas Ghesquière and Virgil Abloh is also depicted through fabulous images and captivating text.