The Travel Museum brings the history of Louis Vuitton vibrantly to life through some of its most celebrated and outstanding creations.

A private tour of the museum begins with sections devoted to travel by sea, air, rail and road, reflecting the fact that many of Louis Vuitton’s landmark designs – including the iconic Wardrobe trunk, Steamer bag and Keepall, all exhibited here – kept pace with the transportation revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

To encompass the scope of Louis Vuitton’s savoir faire, another section is devoted to exploration, world exhibitions and exceptional special orders. The legendary trunk-bed and the bags created by leading fashion designers for the centenary of the Monogram canvas are among the pieces displayed here.

A separate part of the museum houses the private collection of Gaston-Louis Vuitton, the grandson of the founder, which encompasses around 200 travel articles dating as far back as the late 14th century.

Maîtres Du Savoir-faire - Annie Leibovitz

Probably the foremost portrait photographer of our time, Annie Leibovitz began her career as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, becoming its chief photographer in 1973. She joined Vanity Fair ten years later, having established herself as the world’s leading rock music photographer and an astute documentarian of the social landscape. She has published several collections of her work, most recently A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005, and has created acclaimed advertising images, including her portraits for Louis Vuitton’s Core Values campaign.

Annie Leibovitz never carries a purse, preferring to keep her hands free to hold a camera, and therefore requested a backpack with room for both her photographic equipment and personal effects. Louis Vuitton created a spacious and stylish design in Monogram canvas trimmed, unusually, with black leather and palladium-finish hardware.

The interior, lined with ruby red microfibre, features several different compartments with cushioned protection for Annie Leibovitz’s valuable cameras and accessories, as well as adjustable Velcro pockets. The backpack is complemented by a rectangular shoulder bag with adjustable compartments for cameras and three outside zip pockets for accessories.

Niche de Voyage – Marc Jacobs 

Since graduating from New York’s renowned Parsons School of Design in 1981, Marc Jacobs has established himself as one of the world’s most influential fashion designers. As Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton, he has initiated a series of creative collaborations with contemporary artists, including Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, that have not only revisited Louis Vuitton’s historic signatures, notably Monogram canvas, but have profoundly redefined fashion itself.

Jetting frequently between his native New York and his home in Paris, Marc Jacobs travels accompanied by his two bull terriers, Daisy and Alfred. He asked Louis Vuitton to design a travel kennel in Monogram canvas to allow his pets to travel in style in the hold of an aircraft. Not dissimilar in conception to a traditional trunk, with natural leather handles, a brass S-lock and corners, the Niche de Voyage boasts an array of specific features geared to maximum canine comfort: a wire door, generous air vents, a zinc dish for water and food, and even a space for a photograph of the dogs’ owner and a sample of his clothing, to reassure them during the flight.

Louis Vuitton for the Red Cross Red Cross Kit

The Red Cross movement, initiated on the battle field of Solferino, relays a humanistic ideal: to prevent and appease the sufferance of people weakened by the instability and ever-growing de-humanisation of our society. From urgent to long-lasting humanitarian work: the Red Cross provides each life in danger the opportunity to reconstruct itself and on the long-term. In coordination with the 186 sister companies and the entreaties of the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, it is committed to reconstructing destroyed regions, to supporting weakened populations and to promoting a long-term action plan.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Red Cross, Louis Vuitton has created the Red Cross Kit. The hard-sided case in Monogram canvas, equipped with Louis Vuitton’s signature natural leather handle, brass S-lock and corners, opens frontally to reveal an array of red and grey aluminium medicine boxes arranged in such a way as to form the familiar emblem of the Red Cross. The logo of the Red Cross is hand-painted on the front of the case. All the profits from the auction on November 17th, 2009 of these 7 unique special orders will be donated to the Red Cross Nigerian Fight Against Malnutrition Programme.