Monogram magic

As Louis Vuitton's motif turns 130, Savoir-Faire head Pierre-Louis Vuitton shares what makes it iconic

- Wong Kim Hoh Features Editor

Mr Pierre-Louis Vuitton tells the story with a chuckle. When he was a boy, Louis Vuitton meant one thing and one thing only: brown Monogram canvas.

Today, as head of Savoir-Faire and a sixth-generation descendant of the founding family, the 51-year-old stands at the centre of a vastly expanded universe, one that now encompasses fashion shows, artist collaborations and a yearlong celebration of the Monogram's 130th anniversary in 2026.

Yet for him, it still comes back to the fundamentals: trunks, tools and the quiet magic of the workshop in Asnieres.

He spent his first decade in the village just outside Paris where the maison's founder, Louis Vuitton, opened his workshop in 1859 and built the adjoining family home.

It was an unusual childhood setting, a maison de famille on one side and on the other, the cradle of what would become Louis Vuitton, where trunks and luggage are still made by hand.

In the 1980s, the family moved out so the historic house and workshop could be fully renewed and modernised, transforming Asnieres into a state-of-the-art atelier. The renovation did more than update the buildings. It protected a way of working: the precise gestures, specialised tools and time-honed techniques that still define Louis Vuitton's savoir-faire today.

When Mr Pierre-Louis Vuitton joined the company in 2004, he did not march straight into a corporate office with a famous surname on the door. Instead, he went to Asnieres and asked to start on the workshop floor, where his great-grandfather's craftsmen had once stood.

"I spent my first six or seven years as a team leader. I learnt with all the workers how to design and make luggage, and how to design an entire operation around manufacturing," he says via a Zoom call from Asnieres.

Those years gave him what he calls an essential point of reference: a practical, inside-out understanding of how a trunk is made and deep respect for the artisans who make them.