HandBags & Purses

Louis Vuitton Malletier Paris, more commonly known simply as Louis Vuitton, is a luxury French fashion and leather goods brand and company headquartered in Paris, France.

The company is named after its founder Louis Vuitton (1821-1892), who designed and manufactured luggage during the second half of the nineteenth century. Vuitton was born in Jura, France (now part of the commune of Lavans-sur-Valouse), but moved to Paris in 1835. Two years later, at the age of 16, he apprenticed for the luggage manufacturer Monsieur Marechal. In 1854, he founded the company, which is now owned by LVMH, a French-based holding company helmed by Bernard Arnault.

One hundred and fifty years after its eponymous founder began creating and selling trunks in Paris, Louis Vuitton's signature leathergoods are considered a status symbol around the globe and are highly regarded in the fashion world. The company's iconic Monogram Canvas design can be considered the very first designer label in contemporary history; the design was created in 1896 by Vuitton's son Georges with the intent of preventing counterfeiting. Ironically, Louis Vuitton has become the most counterfeited brand in fashion history; just over 1% of all items branded with the Vuitton logo are not counterfeit.

The Monogram Canvas is the brown canvas printed with the LV logo, the flowers, and the quatrefoils. Vuitton does not manufacture a canvas with only the LV monogram, nor does it manufacture a canvas with only the flowers and quatrefoils. The original Monogram Canvas (a brown background with gold symbols on it) is by far the company's most popular and profitable line. Other lines by the company use the same pattern (the LV plus the flowers plus the quatrefoils) in different materials and different colors, but the design does not vary (except on very, very limited edition items that are not available for sale to the general public).

The modern Louis Vuitton company has carefully cultivated a celebrity following and has used famous models and actresses in its marketing campaigns, most recently Uma Thurman and Scarlett Johansson. Other models and actresses who have lent their name to the Louis Vuitton line include Jennifer Lopez, Chloe Sevigny, Christina Ricci, Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss, and Naomi Campbell. Hayden Christensen has also appeared as model for the company's luggage and prt--porter lines. The company commonly uses print ads in magazines and billboards in cosmopolitan cities.