As part of LVMH’s Premium Partnership with Paris 2024, Louis Vuitton is proud to present the Medals Trunks and Torches Trunks, special trunks created for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
Louis Vuitton has designed and crafted two Medals Trunks that will carry the medals of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, and two Torches Trunks for the Official Olympic and Paralympic torches. They are a key part of the Maison’s mission for Paris 2024 and a continuation of its history of creating handmade trunks. The trunks will be associated with key Paris 2024 moments of celebration, such as Olympic and Paralympic Torches Relays with the Torches Trunks and the Medals Trunks will be notably presented at the Champions Park.
The Medals Trunks and Torches Trunks join a celebrated family of Louis Vuitton trophy trunks, which has continuously grown since 1988. For more than 35 years, Louis Vuitton has realised trunks that combine ingenious design, artisanal skill and a forward-looking vision for many of the world’s greatest sporting events.
All these trunks embody the design philosophy installed by the Maison’s founder himself. After 17 years spent as a renowned layetier-emballeur, or professional packer and case maker, Louis Vuitton created his namesake Maison in 1854 and channelled all his acquired knowledge, skill and experience into an elegantly simple process: study and precisely understand an object before creating the perfect bespoke trunk to protect it. That founding design vision continues to drive the Maison to this day – and is perfectly embodied in the Medals Trunks and Torches Trunks specially fashioned for these key Olympic and Paralympic symbols.
These two creations echo the mission of the LVMH group in the art of crafting dreams, and its contribution to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 as the “Artisan of all Victories”.
The Paris 2024 Medals Trunks will protect, display, and showcase the coveted medals, which have been designed by LVMH’s Maison Chaumet, for this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
Holding the objects that symbolize Olympic and Paralympic athletes’ hopes and dreams, the imposing Medals Trunks are covered in legendary Monogram canvas, and features brass corners and closures like those used on Louis Vuitton trunks since the 1850s. Inspired by the Maison’s celebrated Malle Coiffeuse, the Medals Trunks have a central section and two hinged “wings” that open to reveal drawers specially designed to hold 468 medals. The trunk’s interior is entirely lined with black matt leather – which is also used for the drawers’ handles – and features subtle embossed logos and serigraphy of both logos Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
Drawing upon all of Louis Vuitton’s 170 years of savoir-faire in the art of travel, the Louis Vuitton Torches Trunks will elegantly protect and display the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Torches which will travel across France in the lead up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Arriving from Olympia to Marseille on May 8th for the Olympic Torch, and from Stoke Mandeville in the UK in August for the Paralympic Torch, the two torches, designed by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, will pass through the hands of over 11,000 torchbearers on their way to Paris.
Protecting the torches before and after their journeys, each ingeniously designed trunk has circular “sockets” in the base and the lid into which the torch is fitted and held securely in place. Further protection is offered by the trunk’s interior, which is lined with soft black matt leather. Each trunk can be easily transformed into a graceful presentation case by simply unfolding the doors and reversing the “socket” in the hinged lid to reveal an embossed Paris 2024 logo. Recalling certain of the Maison’s historic trunks, such as a celebrated 1895 hat case, the exterior of the trunks is covered in Louis Vuitton’s Damier canvas, created in 1888; it also features the traditional brass protective corners and closures.
Like every Louis Vuitton trunk designed and made in Asnières since 1859, the Medals Trunks and the Torches Trunks are both cleverly conceived and beautifully made. They embody the finely honed skills, ever-exacting standards, and continual dedication to excellence of Louis Vuitton and its strong team of artisans – core values and principles shared with every single athlete whose commitment and hard work will allow them to compete at Paris 2024. Together, the Medals Trunks and the Torches Trunks write a new chapter in the ongoing story of how “Victory travels in Louis Vuitton”.
“We are honoured and extremely proud to be part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 with the mission of packing and presenting the defining symbols of Paris 2024: the victors’ medals and the torches of the Olympic flame. For over 170 years, Louis Vuitton has been creating trunks that embody excellence, creativity and audacity, values we share with the world’s greatest sporting events. Louis Vuitton and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 share common values such as the quest for excellence, creativity, and the beauty technique. Once again, victory travels in Louis Vuitton.” said Pietro Beccari, Chairman and CEO Louis Vuitton.
“Following the unveiling of the Olympic and Paralympic medals designed by the Maison Chaumet, LVMH is once again fully expressing its role as premium partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, and “Artisan of all Victories, this time with Louis Vuitton. Protecting the symbol of Paris 2024 – the torches – and the dreams of the greatest athletes – the medals – required the expertise of exceptional craftsmen. Louis Vuitton has put its 170 years of expertise in trunks design at the service of Paris 2024, to protect and present the medals, and to take the torches around the country. It is a great source of pride today to unveil these original creations, which I’m sure will remain engraved in the history of the Group and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024!” declared Antoine Arnault – LVMH Image & Environment.
An exhibition on the emblematic Louis Vuitton Malle Courrier with pieces dedicated to Louis Vuitton & Sport is opened from Tuesday to Sunday, at the Louis Vuitton Family House, 18 rue Louis Vuitton in Asnières-sur-Seine – Online registration here.
© Stéphane Feugère @stephanefeugerephotography
Credits: © Courtesy of Louis Vuitton Italia
