CRAFT SERVICES: Louis Vuitton’s latest coffee table book provides a peek behind the scenes of the luxury industry.
“Louis Vuitton Manufactures,” scheduled to be published by Assouline on Feb. 1, is dedicated to the French luxury brand’s artisans in Europe and the U.S., who produce everything from handbags and trunks to clothing, shoes, watches, high jewelry and fragrances.
With a foreword from journalist and author Nicholas Foulkes, the 400-page tome contains hundreds of photographs of Vuitton’s installations, which are often located in exceptional environments, such as its leather goods workshop in Ducey, France, not far from the Mont-Saint-Michel, or its high jewelry atelier on Place Vendôme in Paris.
The book also honors the craftspeople themselves, a surprisingly diverse bunch.
“Louis Vuitton maintains the idea that a workshop can be a place of personal growth. Here more than elsewhere, know-how is learned, respected, perpetuated and transmitted by those who challenge the image of the traditional workshop on a daily basis and use innovative techniques,” the brand said in a statement.
Vuitton has 18 leather goods workshops in France, four in Spain and three in the U.S., in addition to a shoemaking workshop in Italy, a watch manufacture in Switzerland and the jewelry atelier in France.
The book is available in a classic edition, in English or French, that will retail for 95 euros, or $95. Chinese, Korean and Japanese versions will go on sale in April.
A collector’s edition, limited to 500 numbered copies, will come in a poplar wood case, in a nod to Vuitton’s historic trunks. Retailing for 1,900 euros, or $1,900, it will be available exclusively in French in Louis Vuitton stores and on the brand’s e-commerce site.
SEE ALSO:
Louis Vuitton Touts New Generation Leather Goods Workshop
Louis Vuitton Channels Versailles in New Place Vendôme Flagship