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For me, Patrick Louis Vuitton, technician, manufacturer and creator of luggage,
the importance of this exhibition is observing all the key stages
in the technical evolution of Louis Vuitton over more than 150 years.
If we look at each item individually, it’s marvellous.
We are not only observing evolution through grey, striped, Damier, Monogram canvas.
That’s not what I mean by evolution.
I mean the technical evolution we see at every stage of our journey through this exhibition.
As the fifth generation, I see bags made by Claude, Georges, Gaston, and even Louis.
I see the items they created and wonder how they dealt with little problems, how they solved them.
You saw the little box – the attaché case or dispatch case that used to belong to my grandfather.
It was very important for it to be in the exhibition.
I always used to see my grandfather leave Asnières for Avenue Marceau with this attaché case in his hand.
It had an opening like a letterbox.
He would arrive at his office and lay down the case vertically,
opening the letters he had received at Avenue Marceau,
and if there were papers he wanted to take back to Asnières with him
he would put them through the letterbox.
This little attaché case – this dispatch case – has something mythical about it
and I thought that it would be an ideal addition to the exhibition.
It was born in Asnières and has travelled back and forth between Asnières and Paris all its life.
It’s a very short journey for a case – 7 km – but it’s a typical Parisian case.
Our bags were first carried by horse-drawn carriages,
and even by pedestrians, during Savorgnan’s expedition in Africa,
and at supersonic speed by Concord.
We have therefore experienced the evolution in travel and transport
and have always produced luggage accordingly.
Right now we are going through a recession,
since there are no longer any supersonic flights – we travel a lot more slowly.
When the builders of spaceships think of including luggage holds in their designs,
we may well have room to put one of our suitcases!