A Slice of France #6: Louis Vuitton, Scopitone, Locronan
Louis Vuitton: behind the monogram, Scopitone: the music video forerunner, Cultural Heritage: Locronan
Louis Vuitton: behind the monogram
Louis Vuitton, the flagship of the LVMH company, is the world's leading luxury company. But let me be clear, I personally really don’t care for their products.
Today, people don’t buy a bag or a suitcase, but rather a logo disguised as a bag or a suitcase, and the more the logo is ostentatious the more they want it...
So why talk about Louis Vuitton then?
For one reason, the story behind the story.
A stroke of genius
Louis Vuitton was born in 1821 in a small village in Jura (France), not far from the Swiss border.
At age 16, Louis moves to Paris. He travels the 400 km distance (about 220 miles)… on foot!
He then becomes an apprentice with a trunk maker and ends up being responsible for preparing the luggage of wealthy people about to embark on a long trip.
Impératrice Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, is one of his customers.
This experience allows him to build a network of wealthy clients.
In 1854, Louis opens his own shop in Paris called “Louis Vuitton Malletier” ( Malletier means “Trunk Maker” in French).
He then has a genius idea. At a time when rail and sea transportation are booming, he creates the flat trunk.
A flat trunk is much easier to transport, handle, and stack than the rounded trunks of this period.
The flat trunk is immensely successful with wealthy travelers and celebrities.
Louis, with the help of his son Georges, starts to develop his business abroad.
In 1885, the first boutique opens in London, soon followed by New York and Philadelphia.
The famous monogram
Louis dies in 1892.
A few years later, in 1896, Georges creates the famous “LV monogram” which will make the brand famous throughout the world.
For the record, Georges was led to draw this logo less to pay homage to his father than to stop the growing counterfeiting of their trunks, a practice still relevant to this day.
Want a LV bag for less than 50€, identical to the original? Take your chance on the 20th arrondissement (district) of Paris. You may get lucky!
LVMH and Japan
In 1987, Louis Vuitton merged with Moët Hennessy to form LVMH.
Two years later, Bernard Arnault, 5th world fortune, becomes LVMH majority shareholder.
Arnault made Louis Vuitton products very successful all over the world, especially in Japan, where LVMH generates 25% of its turnover.
This probably explains the somewhat strange behavior of some Japanese tourists in Paris.
They arrive in Paris after a long and exhausting flight.
What do you think they would do next? Visiting the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Montmartre or The Louvre, like every average tourist? Nope!
They will instead cram into air-conditioned buses and tour luxury boutiques.
When the bus doors open, they will rush inside the luxury stores like pirates boarding Spanish galleons with holds filled with gold.
Afraid of seeing their stocks depleted , shops generally limit purchases to one item per person.
Back in Kyoto, seated on the ground around the table, the adults pass on the loot: Vuitton bags, Cartier wallets, Channel perfumes, etc.
When the little boy wearing a Dior T-shirt asks: “how is the view from the Eiffel Tower?”, dad replies… “the what?”
This phenomenon doesn’t only occur in Paris. I have seen hordes of tourists rushing into leather stores in Florence, Italy. They are definitely on a mission, and believe me, you do not want to stay in the way!
The Scopitone: the music video forerunner
Scopitone was a type of jukebox featuring a 16 mm short color film (2-3 minutes) with a magnetic HiFi soundtrack, developed in the 60s by the French company Cameca based on Soundies technology developed during World War II.
Each Scopitone jukebox held a selection of 36 films also called Scopitones.
By 1966, approximately 800 machines were installed in the United States in cocktail lounges and adult establishments.
In France more than 400 Scopitone films were produced in the 60s.
The 1962 Scopitone above features French singer and yéyé icon Francoise Hardy.
The song, “Tous les garcons et les filles” (All the boys and the girls), written by Françoise, was a huge hit in France and Europe ( also covered in the US) and propelled the artist to stardom. She was only 18 years old !
The film, directed by 25 year old Claude Lelouch, was shot in winter on a very cold day. All the performers were freezing, especially the young ladies whose short summer skirts were lifted by the swing motion, which at the time caused quite an outrage…
A few years later, in 1966, Lelouch will achieve international fame with his film (full-length this time) “Un homme et une femme” ( A man and a woman).
The picture won 2 Golden Globe awards (best screenplay and best foreign language film) as well as the “Palme d’Or” at the Cannes Festival.
Years later , Lelouch claimed that directing Scopitones saved his career.
Cultural Heritage: Locronan
Locronan is a large village (bourg in French) located in the south-west of Brittany ( 400 miles west of Paris) between the towns of Douarnenez and Quimper.
As you walk through the narrow streets flanked by small stone houses and hedges of hydrangeas, you do feel like going back in time, stepping back centuries.
Locronan was erected on the site of a druidic high place whose rites were Christianized by the Irish hermit Ronan. Hence the name: Lok (“holy place” in breton language) and Ronan (the Saint).
The sailcloth industry will, from the 15th century, make the wealth of the town.
Considered as one of the most beautiful villages in France, Locronan now lives mainly from tourism. It welcomes around 500,000 visitors every year. Not bad for a village of 800 souls!
If you pass by this corner of Brittany, don’t miss it. It's a magical place!