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THE CABIN TRUNKS
Louis Vuitton's Cabines trunks were among the most popular models produced by the trunk maker. Appearing during the first transatlantic voyages, these trunks quickly became indispensable for travelers. Stored under the cabin berth, it was at the time the best way to keep their personal effects safe and close to them.
Discover the period catalog
THE EXTERIOR OF THE LOUIS VUITTON CABIN TRUNKS
Louis Vuitton began offering Cabin Trunks around 1885/90. The first models were covered with striped canvas, usually with metal edges and handles. This finish was the most resistant and ensured a certain tranquility to travelers.
Later we find checkered models, with two available colors (beige and brown) and two finishes (leather and Moorish). From then on, the luxury trunks began to take place in the workshops of Asnières. Leather borders were added to the different trunks and brass parts progressively replaced the metal parts.
It is the very idea of travel that evolves, with more and more refined means of transportation and customers looking for comfort and splendor. This turning point was noticed with the arrival of the first ship built by the White Star under the direction of Thomas Henry Ismay in 1871.
With the arrival of the monogram canvas in 1896, Louis Vuitton cabin trunks became an indispensable model for the most elegant travelers of the time. Thanks to this resistant canvas, its security clasps, its small volume and its very high quality of manufacture.
THE INTERIOR OF THE LOUIS VUITTON CABIN TRUNKS
The interior of Louis Vuitton's cabin trunks was most often padded, to protect the contents of the trunk as best as possible. This padding also allowed pins or family photos to be attached directly to the inside of the luggage. These pins are often found during the restoration of the padding.
For light trunks such as the Aviette or the Aero trunks with a plywood structure, a stretched canvas was fixed in the trunk, with the signature of the trunk maker Louis Vuitton engraved directly on the canvas.
The bottom of the trunk (the tank) could be fitted with a removable frame or storage compartments. These compartments were optional and added by the client at the time of ordering, depending on the type of travel or effects to be transported.
THE WORLD TOUR
"I had not gone to bed for thirty-six hours because Miriam lived only at night, dragging behind her an international court, jumping from club to bar, imprinting on twenty-six glasses the carmine mark of her lips. I knew she was American and a wanderer, and that she had traveled around the world three times with her phonograph, a steamer trunk and a Danish dog, each black spot of which I imagined to be stamped with a hotel label, like those multicolored suitcases you bump into in travel agencies! I love women who have traveled a lot ! "
