Louis Vuitton's Monogram: The 1896 Anti-Counterfeit Pattern Turned Icon

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Louis Vuitton opened his Paris shop in 1854 and by 1858 had introduced the flat-topped trunk, built from lightweight poplar, brass corners and waterproof Trianon canvas so luggage could finally be stacked on trains and steamships. His trunks starred at the 1867 Universal Exhibition, and in 1871 Japanese military observer Oyama Iwao became the brand's first customer from Japan. Copycats followed at once, so Vuitton moved from gray canvas to stripes in 1876 and a checkered pattern in 1888. After his death in 1892, his son Georges took the trunks to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and in 1896 launched the monogram canvas, drawing on Japanese family crests and the antique sword guards his own son collected.

A 2004 book by a French journalist documented the family's support for the Vichy government under Gaston-Louis Vuitton, including a factory making busts glorifying Marshal Pétain; the parent company said the author exaggerated but did not deny the facts. The brand later merged into LVMH in 1987 and grew under Marc Jacobs, Virgil Abloh and Pharrell Williams. Its legal fights reached a Danish art student's Darfur charity drawing, a Britney Spears video and a Hong Kong barber's stools. In May 2024 a show in Barcelona's Park Güell drew protests after contractors damaged a protected stairway and wall.

• The company spends roughly half of its communications budget fighting counterfeiting and unauthorized use of its designs.
• A French court ordered a record label and MTV to pull the Britney Spears video for Do Something over a dashboard pattern.
• In 2021 the Japan Patent Office rejected the brand's complaint against prayer bead pouches, calling the check a traditional Japanese motif.
• Barcelona protesters blocked the flagship store with banners reading "Your Luxury, Our Misery."
• A 2021 blue and white $700 scarf resembling the Palestinian keffiyeh drew intense global backlash.