To travel from the center of Paris to Asnières-sur-Seine, about six miles northwest, is to witness a cross section of the city's evolution: Neoclassical monuments give way to the industrial suburb of Clichy, where corporate giants are headquartered and sustainable urbanism is taking hold. From there the Seine cuts through the city sprawl as it snakes its way north, and several traffic-strewn bridges take you over the Left Bank to reach the small commune, a hub of creation that has hummed away just outside the city's periphery for the past 150 years.
In the mid to late 19th century, Asnières-sur-Seine's streets, lined with elegant brick villas, became a charming refuge from city life for the burgeoning middle class. This was the appeal for a trunk maker named Louis Vuitton, who built a workshop here in 1859. From this base, Vuitton, who became the official packer and box maker for Empress Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III, established his leather-goods empire—helped by the advent of train travel and his ingenious courier trunks.
Thierry de Longevialle, director of the museum and family home, now hosts the fashion house's top clients here, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can be arranged via insiders like Stéphanie Boutet-Fajol, of the boutique travel operator Sacrebleu Paris. Guests can spend half a day exploring the property with a guide and private driver, with a stop for lunch nearby.
On the June day when I visit, the gardens are filled with the scent of roses and jasmine. Obscured from the quiet residential street by high fences, the estate feels Edenic. De Longevialle begins our tour in the home's spacious double salon, part of a 1900 Art Nouveau extension commissioned by Louis Vuitton's only child, Georges Ferréol Vuitton, and designed by Hector Guimard, a leading architect of the decorative arts movement. Georges was considered more flamboyant than his father, as evidenced by the room, which embodies Art Nouveau's valorization of fine craftsmanship and the natural world; sensual frescoes creep up the walls, and a spring garden blooms across the original stained glass windows. At one end is a fantastically ornate bright blue ceramic fireplace by Ècole de Nancy.
Georges is also responsible for creating the LV initial in 1896, a symbol that arguably came to represent the birth of modern luxury. It remains the uniform motif on the exteriors of some 4,000 trunks crafted in the workshop just across the courtyard. Though modern in its design, the light-filled two-story atelier is home to methods, materials, and tools that are little changed since Louis Vuitton's day.
Inside, there is a quiet thrum of activity. Some 250 craftsmen come to work here each day. We weave our way around the benches and pass a craftswoman—a former milliner retrained by the company—hand-sewing on the leather handles of a trunk for hats. Another nearby is cutting and gluing the microfiber coverings of a vanity trunk that measures more than three feet high. It's one of the most in-demand styles, along with jewelry trunks, some of which can feature up to 100 individual compartments.
While there are firm design guidelines for the exteriors of a Louis Vuitton trunk, interiors can be personalized with individual compartments, engravings, linings (leathers and microfibers are available from a palette of more than 800 hues), and other touches. Clients have asked for everything from a party trunk outfitted with Champagne glasses and a disco ball to a trophy case for French Open cups, with terra-cotta-colored interiors in tribute to the Paris venue's clay courts. This summer a collection of medals and torches trunks created on-site will be exhibited as part of the Olympic celebrations in Paris. Almost anything is possible.
This article appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here
