Louis Vuitton’s New Coffee Table Book Is a Vibrant Look at the Brand’s Well-Traveled History

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The people who power Louis Vuitton have never been shy about sharing the highlights of the brand’s legendary history. Still, its new coffee table book takes a novel approach to binding its past and present between two covers.

From Louis to Vuitton, published this fall by Assouline and written by the French journalist Arthur Dreyfuss, is organized into 54 parts, each assigned to a letter. The format isn’t designed to be read in a linear fashion: Instead, you can flip to virtually any page to learn something new about the brand. (A, for example, is for Asnières, where Louis Vuitton’s trunk-making workshop is based; M is for Monogram, the iconic LV logo that decorates a plethora of the brand’s products.)

To write the book, Dreyfuss partnered with Pierre-Louis Vuitton, a sixth-generation descendant of the house’s founder and the brand’s head of savoir-faire. “We spent time to explain the history of the family,” Vuitton says of the process, which started about two years ago, “and after we spent a long time to understand the fabrication of trunks.”

The trunk, after all, is the product that put Louis Vuitton on the map. The company grew with the rapid expansion of leisure travel that took hold in the middle of the 19th century. Vuitton’s trunks were prized first for their flat bottoms and tops, which made them easy to stack in the luggage holds of steamships and trains; today, it’s just as recognized for the Keepall or the voluminous Horizon roller line, designed to breeze through airport terminals.

“In the 19th century, for example, we traveled on boats, and we needed big trunks for longer trips. At the beginning of the 20th century, we traveled with cars, and we needed to have smaller luggage, like the Alzer,” Vuitton says, referring to the stylish suitcases the brand helped popularize. “This is always the story of Louis Vuitton: to understand the needs of the clients and to adapt the luggage,” he adds.

But for Pierre-Louis, the exercise was as much about delving into family history as it was about introducing the brand’s legacy in a new way. For example, G stands for Gaston, another one of his ancestors. “Gaston was the grandson of Louis Vuitton. He was the first person who started to write the history of the company,” Pierre-Louis says. “We were able to make this book today, with all these documents, all these photos, because of the work of Gaston.”

The $250 tome is available through the brand’s boutiques and its publisher, Assouline. Consider it the ultimate gift for Louis Vuitton collectors and history buffs alike.