Luxury designers of fashion items have continued to revolutionize the market and manage public opinions and ideas in that regard.
Louis Vuitton is one of the leading brands specializing in luxury designer fashion worldwide. With price tags valued over hundreds and thousands of dollars, here are the 10 reasons why Louis Vuitton is so expensive.
For anyone who doesn’t care much about luxury fashion, a bag is just a bag. However, for those enthusiasts who live and breathe everything fashion, a Louis Vuitton bag is not just any ordinary bag.
While the color, pattern and design of Vuitton bags is immediately eye-catching, there’s more to why this luxury brand’s products could cost you your entire life’s savings.
1.History
In 1837, Louis Vuitton, the founder of the brand, made his way on foot from Anchay to Paris during the economic growth that had attracted others to the region. He was a trunk makers apprentice for close to two decades before he managed to open his own store.
1858 saw the birth of a new trunk designed by Vuitton which was made of water proof, durable, light-weight cotton canvas material and was shaped in a rectangle which made it easier to stack.
This revolution in history from the dome-shaped traveling trunks to the rectangle shape is often referenced as the dawn of a new age in the trunk manufacturing industry, which it was.
When Louis passed away in 1892, his son patented the all-famous Louis Vuitton monogram that features a letter L interlocked with a V in honor of his father.
A Louis Vuitton bag is a bag with a strong and powerful history which influences it value.
2.Exquisite Designers
Maintaining an edge over the growing competition in fashion is increasingly demanding. Louis Vuitton prefers to work with professionals and experts in fashion fields to work with.
Being a formidable brand, their designers too have to be cutting edge in their own right.
Their women’s collection’s creative director, Nicolas Ghesquiere, is a French designer with over 30 years in luxury fashion experience. He came in 2013 as a replacement to Marc Jacobs who is also a renowned and admired luxury fashion designer.
A much recent example of these high-profile collaborations is when they signed on with Off-White celebrity designer Virgil Abloh as their artistic director of Vuitton’s men’s wear collection.
To be able to pay these already established and famous designers in their own right must cost a pretty penny.
3.Limited Edition
Louis Vuitton capitalizes on desire and exclusivity. They do not produce to flood the markets with their unique and genius designs.
Vuitton sticks to their sales projections and once they are hit, they cease production of the item to minimize wastage and maintain the high value of the item.
Some items are even marketed as limited edition with price tags totaling over tens of thousands of dollars. The most talked about to date is the Royal Wedding Petite Malle bag.
With only 85 pieces created, it was designed and released in 2018 in honor of the royal wedding between Prince Harry and celebrity Meghan Markle.
So, this could leave you wondering what Louis Vuitton do with any extras in production. Some say they hold an indoor sale for their employees and others believe that they burn them to avoid lowering their value. Whatever it is, you will never find a real Vuitton bag on sale unless it’s a resale.
4.Brand Awareness
Vuitton is ranked as the world’s most valuable luxury brands by Forbes magazine. Their recognized products are handbags, shoes, watches, jewelry, leather goods, trunks and accessories.
Recently they launched a perfume line, a first in 70 years, and built a fragrance factory to facilitate their development.
They launched the female fragrances with a short film featuring celebrity actress Emma Stone and the male fragrances were added to the collection in 2018.
Also recognized as one of the most profitable brands worldwide recording 30% in profit margins, the company has 460 stores in over 50 countries and also has a website that doubles as an online shopping store.
5.Where are Louis Vuitton Products Made?
Most products are made in Europe or America in the Vuitton workshops where the craftspeople have to undergo a full year of training before they are allowed to work independently without supervision.
While other brands outsource their production to China to lower production rate, Louis Vuitton instead prides itself in quality and market superiority.
However, there are some claims alleging that they do outsource to China but not for the finished product.
It is believed that with the wiggle room provided in most European and American business laws, it is allowed to brand your product as your own making if a few legal conditions are met.
6.High Standard Material Selection for Production
Vuitton maintains high standards from the get-go. At the selection of raw material to be used in production, thorough inspection is undertaken to rule out any blemishes or imperfection.
Even when using animal skin like snake or crocodile, as they usually do, they have to be manually burnished with agate stones which creates the shine.
The same process is applied in making their coated canvas materials water, weather and tear proof.
These carefully selected and groomed materials are what make up the classy and edgy bags that will be with you for a lifetime. That is if you can live long enough to afford one.
A great example of a unique and deathly resilient bag by Louis Vuitton is the Never Full bag which transcends all outfits, events and occasions. Designed to never get full, this could take you from home one minute to shopping in Dubai real quick.
7.Strict Quality Control
The value of a designer bag is in its every detail and Louis Vuitton know and understand this better than anybody.
Every bag that leaves their workshop has to be identical in seams, pocket placement, zip type, shape and even the stitching has to match.
Steps involved in he production of these luxury bags could lead up to 100 or 300 depending on the case. More than that, the bags are tested rigorously by machines and humans to assess their durability and resilience.
Zippers may be opened and closed close to 5,000 times and weights put in the bag and dropped from a high ground just to see how much damage the bag can withstand.
It turns out it can last up to 2 decades or at least one if you are really rough with it
8.Product Cost
Cost of production goes back to the employees or the skilled crafts men and women who work at Louis Vuitton workshops.
It is Vuitton’s policy that the price of one of their bags must be equal to an employee’s full year salary. As they do pay their workers fairly, it is clear to see why the price tag keeps going up.
At the final stage of production, the craft people have to manually stitch and glaze the edges of the bag by hand which is demanding both in time and mental concentration.
The result of which is an indestructible bag that is timelessly fashionable.
9.Rent Cost
Their over 500 stores and pop up shops globally require regular maintenance and up keep.
With locations featuring places like France, Italy, USA, Canada, Britain among many other high-profile metropolitan cities of the world, we can only guess how much the rent bill totals to.
As with every manufacturer of goods, a mark-up based on fixed costs and expenses incurred to facilitate production is expected and understandable.
This is certainly true for Louis Vuitton and it goes without saying that the higher the rental cost, the higher the price mark-up.
10.Campaign Cost
No business can make it anywhere without marketing and running campaigns tirelessly. While you won’t catch Louis Vuitton in promotional ads, they do a lot in the campaign ads section. These ads are more than just a marketing strategy but a business endorsement.
In order to exclusively stamp your name on people’s minds in terms of luxury goods, you have to get them to desire the product enough to want to do anything to have it.
That is where ad campaigns come in and Vuitton has famously worked with tons of celebrities and influential individuals in the production of ad campaigns targeting Vuitton clients.
The most recent campaign was in January 2023 by their women’s collection creative director, Nicolas.
Taking on a horror movie and film cover theme, the director displayed the pre-fall collection against a riveting and dramatic backdrop.
Conclusion
It is clear that a lot more goes into the consideration of a price tag on any Louis Vuitton item.
While some reasons like their workers welfare and the apparent cost of production associated with their designs, others like limiting editions may seem a bit far-fetched.
Either way, we must recognize Louis Vuitton’s undying ambition and great entrepreneurial skills that created an empire.
After all, a brand name that has stood the test of time and is still top of its game deserves to be compensated well for their genius.
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Stephanie is a jewelry lover when she was a teenager. Her major was fashion design when she was in college. She is a jewelry designer at SOQ Jewelry and other design companies. Now she is also a writer for our website. She writes a lot of designs&brands posts with very actionable tips.