In 1888, the brand first released one of their now iconic brown checkered patterns followed a few years after by their famous “LV” monogram in 1896 which set Vuitton apart from people trying to imitate his trunks. In the early 20^th century, the brand was growing and started to add new bag designs to their collection. Those signature styles, Keepall (1930), Speedy (1932), Noé (1932), Alma (1934), are still iconic bags to this day.

Each trunk is still assembled by hand and can take up to six months to be produced depending on the size and intricacy of the design. In today’s production, poplar wood is used as the frame structure which is then covered with canvas or leather. The edges and corners are finished with reinforced leather to absorb shocks and are then hammered to the hard surface using thousands of small nails.

The Asnières workshop is still the main atelier for producing the trunks as well as all custom orders. Louis Vuitton trunks have been known to be specially designed to transport clothing items, beauty products, sports equipment, cigars, silverware and more. Over the years, the brand has created countless special orders ranging from a library trunk for Ernest Hemingway in 1927, a trunk bed for explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in 1879, or more recently, a trophy trunk to carry the 2014 World Cup. The custom department can take great pride in being able to create a trunk that could transport just about anything, making their client’s imagination the limit.

Today the trunk has been reimagined by the brand many times, and recently Nicolas Ghesquière took inspiration from a trunk created in 1911 for American traveler and photographer Albert Kahn, to create the “petite malle” bag. A lot of artists and designers collaborate with the brand to create limited editions and modern takes on the iconic LV trunk.