Louis Vuitton 200 Years – Es Devlin Trunk

Es Devlin is an artist, stage designer, and architect. One of Louis Vuitton’s most prestigious collaborators. We were asked to bring her concept of the classic travel trunk to life, celebrating Monsieur Louis’ 200th Birthday.

The labyrinthine design conveys the closely woven nature of Louis Vuitton as a company. We worked closely with Es to realise her design in a practical manner for fabrication. Polished steel rods run through the structure at strategic points to minimise visual impact. A light pine finish to the maze allowed for the structure to pop amongst the criss-crossing shadows of the overlapping levels.

Embedded on the surface of the wooden strips is every Louis Vuitton staff member’s name, totalling to nearly 30,000. Each were carefully positioned to be evenly spread across the whole length of the structure, both upper and lower side. A film of the piece was used as content on digital displays at LV stores all over the world.

For more visuals of the piece, along with the other 199 submissions, visit www.louis200.com and www.uk.louisvuitton.com.