Museum explores Vuitton influence on travel

Skilled carpenters, locksmiths and leather artisans have been working in the Louis Vuitton workshop since it was founded in 1859

From Stephanie Oswald
CNN Travel Now

ASNIERES, France (CNN) -- While Louis Vuitton is a key player in the world of high fashion, the name looms large in the timeline of travel, too.

To better understand the famed designer's role in the evolution of luggage, just head to the Louis Vuitton Travel Museum outside Paris.

Vuitton's legacy thrives in the old port city of Asnieres, where he set up his workshop, and set out to turn travel into an art form.

Despite the benefits of modern mechanization, it's the precision and care of skilled carpenters, locksmiths and leather artisans that prevail here, as they did when the shop was founded in 1859.

Adjacent to the workshop is a museum, which displays a vast collection of relics. They tell the story of how a family of French woodworkers built an empire out of a passion for adventure, and an affinity for fashion.

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Changing with the times

At an early age, Vuitton invented the first flat-top trunk as an alternative to the traditional dome shape, making it easier to stack trunks on top of one another.

And Vuitton kept pace with modern modes of transport, as well as the needs of his elite clientele.

Some stow-away trunks, for example, were sized specifically to fit the tight quarters of an ocean liner, or a steam engine cabin. But more compact didn't mean cramped: Vuitton took great pains to keep his clients' finery looking, well, just fine.

"He wanted everything very well-protected to travel, very well-organized," museum caretaker Cecile de la Perraudiere says.

Train travel also brought the advent of the steamer bag, and after Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in 1927, the modern-day suitcase was born.

In the museum, some of the more unusual Vuitton designs are on display. This tea set was produced by special order in 1926 for the prince of India

Son takes over

By the time the automobile had become all the rage, Vuitton's son Georges had taken the reins of the company. He not only shared his father's penchant for travel, but he also inherited his creative genes, as evidenced by another piece that de la Perraudiere points out.

"It was called the keep-all, because it keeps everything. It's today one of the best sellers," she says.

Also on display at the museum: a tea set designed in 1926 for the prince of India, a traveling secretary special-ordered by a world-renowned conductor, and a bed-trunk designed for an early African explorer.