Louis Vuitton’s monogram canvas
The pattern of the initials LV and stylised flowers that was meant to make the trunk impossible to copy.
Vuitton’s trunks were copied early on, and his son Georges Vuitton developed a pattern that was harder to imitate. The monogram with the initials and stylised flowers drew on the period’s interest in Japanese family crests.
The canvas was registered as a trademark and became one of the world’s best-known patterns – and, ironically, one of the most counterfeited.
Materials: Printed cotton canvas, leather, brass, wood
Manufacture: Designed in 1896 by Georges Vuitton; the canvas is still made and used on bags and luggage.
The interlaced initials LV.
The four-petalled flowers, in a circle and in a lozenge.
The regular pattern running over the trunk.
The Monogram canvas appeared in 1896, four years after Louis Vuitton’s death.
The initials L and V intertwined, a four-petalled flower in a circle, a four-pointed star and a flower with four leaves, in light brown on darker brown canvas.