PRECIOUS Vessels

When is a lipstick not just a lipstick? When it transports you to a Gilded Age grand tour.

- APRIL LONG

If you were a well-heeled traveler in the early 20th century, you might have possessed a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk equipped with compartments designed to prevent fragile fragrance flacons from shattering during sea voyages. Or perhaps a monogrammed leather toiletries case that opened like a jewel box to display powder compacts, tortoiseshell hairbrushes, and jars of face cream. (If you were soprano Marthe Chenal in 1925, your custom vanity case was made of crocodile; it’s now in the Louis Vuitton archive in Paris.) It was an era of elegance, consideration, and precision—one wouldn’t just let one’s luxe beauty accessories roll around in the bottom of a grubby tote. Even Louis Vuitton’s first handbags were created intentionally to give ladies an elegant way to carry their lipsticks.