The fashion house has overcome plenty of challenges to perfect the design in time for the Paris 2024 opening ceremony.
It could be any pretty but sleepy street in a peaceful Paris suburb. But the road sign gives it away. Welcome to Rue Louis Vuitton. Through an anonymous gate lies the beating heart of the maison’s empire. It may be a name that is synonymous with instantly recognisable branding and megawatt fashion shows, but here in Asnieres-sur-Seine, to the northwest of the French capital, the quiet and intensely focused work of creating the trunks that are the starting point of the label continues just as it has done for 165 years, ever since Louis Vuitton chose the area as a retreat from city life that still gave him easy links to his first store at Opera via the Seine.
The first impression, when you step through the gate, is of being the first guest at a genteel al fresco party. This would once have been Louis Vuitton’s back garden. Beyond the well-tended and fragrant flower beds, Monsieur Vuitton’s handsome white stucco home was made more impressive by an extension added by his son Georges (the man credited with the LV boom in the late 19th century). Georges’s addition is a rare example of art nouveau elegance, including an exquisite stained-glass window created by Paul-Louis Janin in 1900.
But in the workshops beyond the house, Louis Vuitton’s artisans have been applying their traditional techniques to an entirely new challenge: crafting the trunk that will accompany the Olympic torch on its journey through France, culminating in its starring role in the Paris 2024 opening ceremony last night.
Refreshingly, the craftspeople working on the torch trunk are all young enough to be Olympic athletes themselves. Each takes a month-long savoir-faire course when they join the maison, training for more than a year once they arrive in the atelier. Some follow in the footsteps of parents or grandparents and use tools handed down the generations. The ultimate aspiration might be to reach such a level that they are named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts, France’s highest cultural honour, as a handful of their colleagues have been.
As Siam, the carpenter tasked with forming every intricate detail of the trunk’s initial construction, shapes the poplar wood, a bird tattoo on her arm flits back and forth when she saws. A pile of design references by her side shows vintage photographs of Louis Vuitton store windows, trunks piled high. She is especially proud to be a woman working on this historic piece. “This is the first time there are as many female Olympians as there are male, so as a woman, it is great to be part of that moment of equality,” she says. “I like the feeling that I’ll be part of that joy which will erupt when the torch passes through the country.”
Siam (whose full name cannot be disclosed for confidentiality reasons) had to overcome plenty of challenges in perfecting the trunk’s design, not least accommodating the exacting specifications of the torch’s designer, Mathieu Lehanneur. A multi-disciplinary creative at the forefront of France’s design scene, he joins a prestigious roster of bright minds tasked with making previous Olympic torches, including the sakura-inspired take by Tokujin Yoshioka for Tokyo 2020, and Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby’s elegant trinity design in honour of London 2012 being the third Games held in the capital.
Lehanneur’s vision for the trunk to hold his torch – which he has described as having “perfect symmetry” to “express a message of equality” – differed somewhat from the classic form.
“The closest we’ve come before to making a torch trunk is making one to hold a trophy, like the America’s Cup,” says Siam. “Normally the trophy – or in this case the torch – would be inserted into a base which it would fit into perfectly and would keep it secure, but the designer was adamant that the entire torch had to be seen. I was nervous about how we’d get around this.”
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Advertise with NZME.The predicament was eventually solved when the Vuitton team decided to insert strong magnets into the trunk’s base so that the torch would look as if it were placed inside, almost floating, without obstruction. Another curveball was Lehanneur’s desire for the inside lid to be entirely smooth and devoid of the indentation or padding that would otherwise be designed to hold the torch in place at the top, so now two interchangeable inner lids have been made – one for transport and another for display.
Naturally, team Vuitton takes such desires in its stride. They’re accustomed to making trunks to cater to clients’ wildest whims. Each trunk must, however, conform to the subtle codes with which every LV trunk has been imbued from the start. It must be rectangular with angular edges. Although this now seems obvious, it was once a way in which Vuitton luggage stood apart from its competitors, whose trunks had rounded edges — great for allowing water to run off in a storm, but terrible, as the wealthy discovered, for stacking. When you’ve got 30 trunks to transport to your summer home, these details become crucial.
After Siam has worked her magic, the trunk – which will weigh 30kg when finished – is taken to the lock section, where the original system devised by Georges Vuitton continues to be used today, although the more trunks are made the more gorges (the closest English translation is pins) are needed on every new commission to ensure each has a unique code – although clients can choose to have the same lock on every trunk they own, meaning they need only one key. Each code is stored by Vuitton so if a key is lost, a new one can be cut.
Upstairs, spring light pours into the workshops – its architecture was inspired by Gustave Eiffel’s principles of open, linear design. Here, Nelson, who has worked at Louis Vuitton for four years, is responsible for applying a gauzy cotton layer to the wood to help make it sturdy and waterproof (on a smaller trunk, this can also act as an invisible hinge element holding the top and sides of the trunk together) before adding the house’s distinctive monogram or the chequered damier canvas – a material borrowed from the military because of its sturdy, waterproof properties – on top.
The latter pattern (designed by Georges Vuitton in 1888) has been selected for the Olympic torch trunk. It has been decreed that the damier can never be sliced down the middle of a square, so precise measuring is essential. “My family and friends are so proud that I’m working on something so historic and important,” Nelson says as he slices the canvas in a faultless line at the edge of the trunk.
“It’s very delicate work, you do have to be meticulous,” adds Antony, who works nearby perfecting the interior and hardware. He joined the atelier three years ago, having started out working in fashion and embroidery. The trunk is lined with black calfskin, edged in lozine (a vulcanised fibre) and finished with brass hardware that has been dipped in gold to ensure it is especially shiny as it tours the country (this is a practice usually reserved for trunks made with exotic skins).
“I’m very honoured to be working on this project,” says Antony. “It’s been going on for several months now – it feels like it’s been going on forever,” he laughs. An Olympic athlete might say the same. But when the Olympics kick off, it will all, no doubt, feel well worth the effort.
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