A few months ago, I received a message from collector Morgan Miller asking if I had any information about the first collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Ettore Bugatti. Morgan had purchased a Louis Vuitton Alzer bag at a consignment sale, which had the Bugatti logo hand-painted on both sides.
He told me that the badge caught his eye when he saw a photo of the item for sale, so he went to check it out for himself. It comes with a matching clutch. Could this be the first collaboration between the two brands?According to Master Investor, Knight Frank’s 2024 Wealth Report shows that ultra-high net worth (UHNWI) investors are allocating 20% of their portfolios to luxury goods as they are an effective hedge against inflation. Morgan Miller, seminar
The item was confirmed to be authentic by leading experts, reboundstore.com founder Siobhan Trewick and Louis Vuitton executives. is the initials of the person who ordered the box. The timing was also spot on: Morgan told me that the locket tag indicated that the item was from the 1930s, a time when we know that Louis Vuitton made custom trunks for high-profile clients who requested a custom size or finish. We were intrigued, so we decided to find out more.
The famous French company Louis Vuitton was founded in 1854 and was called “Louis Vuitton Malletier” (Louis Vuitton Trunk Maker), specializing in the production of trunks. It was in 1997, when the brand hired the talented Marc Jacobs, that the real expansion and diversification began. Jacobs served as the company’s creative director from 1997 to 2014 and created the brand’s first ready-to-wear collection, taking Louis Vuitton to new heights.
In addition to being a successful designer, Jacobs’s talent for spotting talent also brought the idea of collaboration to the fashion world. During his time at Louis Vuitton, he collaborated with a number of artists, designers, and architects, including Stephen Sprouse (2001 and 2009), Richard Prince (2001 and 2009), and Yayoi Kusama (2012 and 2023).
Similarly, design pioneer Ettore Bugatti, who founded his company in 1909, is known for creating high-performance luxury cars and creating a brand that is synonymous with precision, innovation, and cutting-edge technology. His vision has changed the course of automotive history, enabling designs that were previously unimaginable. According to a Bugatti press release, he has created nearly 1,000 patents.
In researching this story, Morgan and I followed two paths. We believe that Bugatti may have commissioned this item for Louis Vuitton for his own personal use. Unlike the Louis Vuitton Alzer bag on the market, this one is 500mm wide, 370mm high, and 150mm deep. We later discovered that these dimensions fit perfectly into the dimensions of the tray of one of his son’s beautiful Bugatti cars.
It is therefore possible that Ettore gave his son Jean Bugatti a Louis Vuitton suitcase with the company logo (with a yellow handle) to use when traveling on business. Gene inherited his father’s talent and began working on it in the late 1920s, but sadly he was killed in a car accident in 1939 when he lost control of the car while avoiding a cyclist and crashed into a tree.
The car Jean Bugatti chose was the beautiful Atlantic 57453, an Art Deco car that he had built himself. Speaking to Mark Edwards of the Archives and Digitization Department at the Bugatti Trust Museum and Learning Center, I learned that only four examples of the car were ever made, one of which was lost during World War II. Nicknamed “La Voiture Noire,” the now-lost car, chassis number 57453, is a mystery that has sparked much speculation among car enthusiasts and historians.
The car seemingly disappeared without a trace during World War II. The La Voiture Noire was last seen on a train bound for Bordeaux to avoid being captured by German troops. According to experts, the car could be worth more than $100 million.
Mark Edwards also believes that designer Ralph Lauren owns one of the four cars, Atlantic 57591, which was passed down to British tennis player Richard B. Pope. It was also owned by the late Barry Price, former chairman of the Bugatti Trust Museum and Research Centre, and later by Lord Bamford. The car eventually made its way to the United States, where it was purchased by Ralph Lauren and restored in 1988. n zero voitoueur.
The Louis Vuitton Morgan's wood panel bought at auction is a great choice
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