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Louis 200: How Louis Vuitton celebrates its founder's bicentennial birthday

Vivienne, the Louis Vuitton mascot. (PHOTO: Louis Vuitton)
Vivienne, the Louis Vuitton mascot. (PHOTO: Louis Vuitton)

Luxury brand Louis Vuitton is 'celebrating' the founder's bicentennial birthday globally with a series of creative initiatives entitled Louis 200.

Born on 4th August 1821, Vuitton left his hometown of Anchay at the age of 14, and arrived in the city of Paris two years later, having travelled by foot. Following an apprenticeship with renowned trunk maker and packer Romain Marechal, Vuitton founded his own maison at 4 rue Neuve-des-Capucines near Paris Place Vendome with its concentration of famous fashion houses.

Over the next few months, Louis 200 will evoke the life and legacy of Louis – adventurer, entrepreneur, designer, innovator – across various media and featuring collaborators from around the world.

(PHOTO: Louis Vuitton)
(PHOTO: Louis Vuitton)

There will be a video game with embedded NFTs to be launched today; store windows that showcase the iconic trunk as a vessel reimagined by 200 exceptional contributors; a large-scale triptych of Vuitton painted by Alex Katz; a fictionalised novel by French writer Caroline Bongrand about the life and intentions of Vuitton, published by Gallimard and available in French and English from October, as well as “Looking for Louis”, an unprecedented documentary that retraces the story of the young pioneer. Available on Apple TV, the documentary will shed light on Louis Vuitton, from his humble beginnings to his enduring legacy.

“Louis: The Game” can be downloaded, through the App Store and Google Play for Android systems and it features Vivienne, the Louis Vuitton mascot, who travels great distances to reach a festive birthday destination. The Game is developed by the same people behind Riot Games (League of Legends) and includes NFT element with the House’s artistic directors and digital artist Beeple, who holds the highest-NFT record for his artwork Everydays: The First 500 Days for US$69.3 million on Christie’s.

Window display renderings. (PHOTO: Louis Vuitton)
Window display renderings. (PHOTO: Louis Vuitton)

Meanwhile, for the store windows across Louis Vuitton's entire store network, will be reimagined by 200 talents across backgrounds and disciplines including architects Peter Marino and Sou Fujimoto, artists and long term collaborators Stephen Sprouse and Alex Israel, designer Nigo, Paralympic swimmer Theo Curin, Hypebeast, Lego, and South Korean boy band and House Ambassadors BTS. Both these initial activations, the novel and documentary will be followed by the others through the end of 2021.