Top image: A photo from 1888 showing the workers of Asnieres, with Gaston Louis Vuitton sat upon the trunk bed.

Historically celebrated as a company stitched seamlessly within the world of travel, Louis Vuitton are showcasing their roots in a new exhibition at their New Bond Street maison. Voyaging and global exploration is an integral faction of house’s DNA, with Mr. Vuitton himself beginning life as a box-making apprentice under the renowned Monsieur Marechal over 150 years ago.

Delving deep into their rich archives, an exclusive collection of custom-made leather trunks and commercial luggage pieces dating back as early as 1885 will be on display, distinguished room by room through five themes; Heritage and Tradition, Pour Elle, The Library, The Gentleman’s Club, and British Summer.

The Heritage and Tradition room exhibits the plum-purple staple suitcase from which Louis Vuitton’s commercial luggage originated as well as a high trunk in the iconic brown and gold, designed to transport suits and dresses. Then there’s the Secretaire Stokowski, a custom-built trunk with fold-out table for the British orchestral conductor of the same name – epic.

Pour Elle offers Louis Vuitton clients a look at numerous jewellery boxes, vanity cases and treasure trunks, each distinct in their proportions, decorated in lavish chocolate brown detailing with beige embellishment. The room is also host to a wardrobe trunk with a palette of golds, coffee-browns and polar whites, which is designed with the freedom for its interior to be arranged in a multitude of ways, as well as the Boite Chapeaux 30 – a means of hat storage for the refined clientele of the early 1900’s.

Within The Library, you’re offered an enticing insight into the life of the Maharaja Hari Singh, of Jammu and Kashmir, with a one-off suitcase constructed for him in 1928 showcasing an assortment of his shaving balms and accessories. Featured beside it is the Malle Bibliothèque, inhabited by the twenty-nine volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Maison Martin Margiela denim Jacket: £625

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