HISTORIES OF HERMES AND LOUIS VUITTON : TWO VERY CLOSE BRANDS

Hermes was founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermès. At the beginning, it was a manufacture of equipment for horse. It’s a French company that still mainly belongs to the same family. The products are defined by high quality, luxury and concern leather goods, perfume, ready-to-wear, watches, tableware, home and lifestyle. 

The first manufacture opens in Paris in 1837. Hermes diversifies its production in the riding area and trusts the automobile rise to develop the luggage industry. In 1920, men and women clothes appear, followed by the first bag’s collection of Lola Prussac in 1933. The perfumes are developed in 1951 by Jean-René Guerrand and Edmond Roudnitska. The world renowned appears especially with the famous bags “Kelly” and “Birkin” created by Jean-Louis Dumas-Hermès and also with the silk square. The diversification continues with the shoes in 1976 with John Lobb. In the 90’s, Hermes purchases the goldsmith Puiforcat, the silk maison Bucol and a part of the cristal glassworks of Saint-Louis.

In 2006 Patrick Thomas becomes the first chairman who doesn’t belong to the family after six generations of Hermes family members.

Louis Vuitton is a French luxury maison founded in 1854 by a leather craftsman. This is the first brand of the group LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) created in 1987. It’s one of the most successful luxury brands in the world, especially in Asia. The Forbes magazine ranked “Louis Vuitton malletier” at the 17^th position concerning the most influent brands in the world. Its different fields are bags and leather luggage, belts, watches, glasses, shoes, ready-to-wear and jewellery.

Louis Vuitton opened a first shop in Paris in 1854 and his son opened a second one in London in 1870. Then, the other shops opened in New York and Philadelphia. The famous canvas was created to curb counterfeiting in 1888 and 11 years later, the famous wax cloth “monogramme LV” became the emblem of the brand. In 1977, the chairman Odile Vuitton makes of Louis Vuitton an international company. Bernard Arnaud has been the chairman of the brand since 1989.

 Comparing these two famous brands, we see that they have lots of similarities concerning the story, the places, the time, the know-how, the desire to keep the family at the head of the brand. Even if both of them are competitors, the main criteria are really close.

Nicolas

Sources:

·         Wikipedia.fr

·         Hermes.com

·         LVMH.fr

·         louisvuitton.fr

·         youtube.fr

·         aol.com

·         http://www.lesflaconsdeparfum.com/hermes.php