Photo: Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades featuring (l to r): the Campana Brothers Cocoon, Alateri Oi Hammock, and Atelier Oi Stool.
At the age of 13, Louis Vuitton (1821-1892) left his home in Anchay, the Jura region of Eastern France, headed for Paris alone by foot. The trip of 292 miles would take more than two years, but he finally arrived in 1837 at the age of 16 to discover a city of poverty being transformed by the industrial revolution.
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Vuitton joined the workshop of Monsieur Marechal, a successful box-maker and packer, which was considered a highly respectable craft. It was then that Vuitton had the prescience to determine his destiny: he would become a trunk maker. In 1854, at the age of 33, he opened his own workshop in Paris and hung a sign outside the shop reading “securely packs the most fragile objects. Specializing in packing fashions.”
Cocoon/Campana Brothers for Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades
Four years later Vuitton introduced his signature lightweight, stackable, rectangular trunks, revolutionizing the design that established his name among the Parisian elite. After his death, Vuitton’s son Georges, expanded the legacy, introducing the signature Monogram Canvas that has become a symbol of prestige the world over.
By 1913, the Louis Vuitton Building opened on the Champs-Elysees, becoming the largest travel-goods store in the world. Stores began to crop up around the world, cementing the company’s name and building its reputation. In 1997, Marc Jacobs, as Artistic Director, introduced the company’s first pret-a-porter line of clothing for women and men, expanding its reach into new markets.
Blossom Stool/Tokujin Yoshioka for Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades
Now, Louis Vuitton introduces Objets Nomades, a collection of foldable furniture and travel accessories in collaboration with world- renowned designers that embraces and reinvents the Maison’s Art of Travel, with two new pieces unveiled at Design Miami: the Blossom Stool designed by Tokujin Yoshioka and the Fur Cocoon by the Campana Brothers.
The Objets Nomades embrace classic design with a decadently contemporary twist, giving one a sense of being in a timeless world that is also a twenty-first century affair. The collection now features 18 pieces including the Bell Lamp by Barber & Osgerby, Stool by Atelier Oi, Concertina Table, Chair and Light Shade by Raw Edges, Swing Chair by Patricia Urquiola, and Lounge Chair by Marcel Wanders.
Lounge Chair/Marcel Wanders for Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades
Like the classic trunks that travel easily to and fro, the Objets Nomades are designed to be taken on the go. The beauty of the forms echoes their function, creating a world of comfort and glamour that is easy to transport wherever and whenever you wish.
The exclusive Objets Nomades exhibition at Design Miami is open to the public from through December 4th, 2016. The collection will remain at the Miami Design District store until January 31st, 2017.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
