Louis Vuitton Celebrates Its Ateliers and Artisans in Long-Awaited Coffee Table Book

“Fundamentally, it’s not about luggage, it’s about innovation.” — Michael Burke, Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO

Assouline has published Louis Vuitton Manufactures, an exclusive book showcasing the ateliers of Louis Vuitton and the artisans who create the Maison’s exceptional pieces. Without a doubt, it is a coffee table book you must add to your collection!

Louis Vuitton fosters the idea that an atelier can be a place of fulfillmentand individuality. A place where savoir-faire can be learned, respected, and transmitted—and innovation nurtured—by artisans who routinely challenge the image of a traditional workshop.

In pursuit of regional expertise and artisanal excellence, Louis Vuitton’s ateliers span the length and breadth of Franceand beyond, from Geneva (Switzerland), to Fiesso d’Artico (Italy) and even Texas (USA). Sites of historic interest or outstanding natural beauty will often have a Louis Vuitton workshop nearby: In Normandy, the sea-girt fastness of Mont Saint Michel can be seen from the workshop at Ducey, and in Beaulieu-sur-Layon, our light-flooded facility promises low environmental impact.

Featuring photographs commissioned exclusively for this book, the volume showcases the extraordinary locations and buildings of Louis Vuitton’s ateliers, and the equally extraordinary artisans who express their talent through Louis Vuitton’s creations (trunks, bags, fragrances, watches, shoes, high jewelry, and ready-to-wear), while carrying the founder’s techniques and savoir-faire into the twenty-first century. It is to these ateliers and the inspiring people who work there that this book is dedicated.

Writing the introduction to this book is Nicholas Foulkes—author, historian, and journalist. Foulkes is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Financial Times How to Spend It, and The Rake Magazine, and luxury editor of British GQ. Best known for his trilogy of nineteenth-century British histories, Last of the Dandies, Dancing into Battle, and Gentlemen and Blackguards, he has published around thirty books on history, the arts and style.

Among his recent works are a biography of the painter Bernard Buffet (Random House) and Time Tamed, a history of mankind’s calibration of time from the Palaeolithic era to the moon landings (Simon & Schuster). His books for Assouline include Bals: Legendary Costume Balls of the Twentieth Century (2011); Swans: Legends of the Jet Society (2013); The Impossible Collection of Watches (2014); and Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso (2020).

The long-awaited volume is available from February 2022. It is available in French and English. This edition will also be available in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese from April 2022.