By Paul-Gerard Pasol,

“The success of Trianon gray canvas had spurred many imitations, so in 1872 Louis Vuitton offered his clients a canvas of red stripes printed on a beige background: a simple, cheerful, and singular pattern that once again charmed his customers and launched a fashion for striped canvas. Again asserting the company’s originality in the face of imitation, Louis Vuitton changed the color range four years later, introducing in 1876 a monochrome canvas with alternating stripes of light and dark beige. This striped canvas was officially produced until the end of the 1880s.

Light and Dark Beige Stripes

Louis Vuitton revolutionized the history of luggage in 1854, when he came up with the idea of covering his trunks in his Trianon gray canvas. Trying to stay ahead of imitators, he launched a different canvas in 1872-the first striped one, with four thin red stripes repeated on a beige background. It was just as successful as the Trianon gray canvas, which again led to many counterfeits. Something had to be done. In 1876 Louis modified the striped canvas, designing a beige monochrome with alternating strips of light and dark beige. The imitators were deterred. Finally choosing one with alternating brown and beige squares-the Damier canvas, the words “L. Vuitton registered trademark” appeared on the canvas, written diagonally across one of the checked squares. This new precaution did not prevent counterfeiting, but Louis Vuitton nevertheless used the Damier canvas for nearly a decade to cover rigid luggage, tall trunks, cabin trunks, wardrobes, and hatboxes.

Damier

The precautions taken in the creation of the Damier canvas failed to thwart plagiarist. It was widely copied. The company would no longer use traditional motifs with simple geometric stripes or checkered squares, as they were too easy to reproduce. It needed instead to create an entirely new pattern specific to Vuitton. Thus, followed the legendary Monogram canvas. It was the first time a manufactured object that had a brand name visible on its exterior.

Monogram Canvas

The Monogram canvas’s gold frame has grown so greatly since its introduction that it is now as familiar to us as an old acquaintance. It is made up of four ornaments – three stylized floral motifs, combining the geometric with the botanical, plus the monogram of the company’s founder- the interlaced initials of Louis Vuitton. Their strong graphic style is based on a rhythmic interplay of horizontal and oblique lines that draw tow incomplete triangles-almost identical, but inverted, so the base of the L supports the point of the V. The first floral motif is the brown star with four curved points- or could it be a flower with four pointed petals? The second floral motif is the reverse image of the four-pointed star-light beige points or petals with a dark beige dot in the center. The last motif is a brown four-petal flower inside a light beige circle. At the center of the flower is another small light beige circle or dot. The stylized motifs and the formal interplay of their echoes, whether obvious or simply suggested, create a strongly graphic perfection that is reinforced by the motifs’ layout. It is simple, clever, and strict. The separate shapes are unified by a precise scansion, a rigorous order. Scanning the canvas from left to right and from top to bottom, we discover a structuring motif-the light beige four-pointed star. It forms a regular grid, appearing on every other vertical and horizontal line of the canvas. The other ornaments alternate inside of that grid.”