Designing the future of Louis Vuitton

Inside a modest building outside Paris, you'll find a museum of sorts, where more than a century of treasures are carefully stored and preserved. "It's intimidating," said Nicolas Ghesquière. "But here, it is always where you can find secrets." Those secrets are in the hands of Ghesquière, the designer shaping the French fashion house Louis Vuitton. The cover of a 1901 Louis Vuitton catalog. Apic "The story of Louis Vuitton itself is innovation," he said. "The man was the innovator in his process, in his development." Louis Vuitton was born in 1821. The young French trunk-maker built a company on a simple idea: A flat, stackable trunk. It replaced the old rounded tops, and revolutionized travel. Vuitton's luggage would become a status symbol. "I'm fascinated that the first was function, and then, of course, this absolutely exquisite elaboration, that define what is luxury," Ghesquière said. "It's what we do; it's that balance between function, craftmanship, and in the same time looking forward for new ideas and innovation." That original idea lives on at the Vuitton family home and workshop on the outskirts of Paris. Pierre-Louis Vuitton, the founder's great-great-great-grandson, makes sure those famous trunks are still made just as they were 172 years ago. "When they make a trunk, it's not a trunk for a day, it's not a trunk for a week; it's a trunk for life," he said. …