L OUIS V UITTON

French luxury fashion and leather goods company Founded in one of the oldest fashion houses Known for bags and trunks Currently headed by Marc Jacobs Became one of the most counterfeited brands

B IOGRAPHY Born in 1821 in France Travelled to Paris on foot by the age of 14 At 16 became an apprentice for Merachal 1845 opened his first shop 1885 opened a store in London Died in 1892 His son Georgies followed his footsteps

M ERCHANDISE : Hand made luggage Clothes Accessories

H ISTORY 19 th century : trunks and luggage retailer 20 th century : expanded into fashion by making bags and purses with signature monogram In 1987 the Louis Vuitton merged with Moet Hennessey, a top spirits manufacturer, to form LVMH- massive luxury goods conglomerate (60 sub companies ) (Hennesy, Dior, Givenschy, Marc Jacobs, Fendi)

Working with Stephen Sprouse and creating graffiti bags A big hit multicolored monogram bags with Takashi Murakami

C OUNTERFEITING Only 1% authentic Monogram created to prevent it 18% of seized fakes in Europe are LV

A DVERTISING Until now magazine ads and billboards Recently made its first commercial ( translated into 13 languages) August 2007 instead of supermodels used Mikhail Gorbachev for his campaign