Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton, a trunk-maker's apprentice who walked to Paris from the Jura as a teenager, opened his own workshop in 1854 and solved a practical problem — flat-topped, stackable trunks for the railway age — so well that the house built on them became the largest luxury brand on earth. The Damier check of 1888 and the Monogram canvas of 1896, created partly to defeat counterfeiters, are among the most recognized patterns in existence. Trunks are still made at Asnières, the family workshop outside Paris, where special orders continue a hundred and seventy years of case-making. The fashion house layered atop the luggage — from Marc Jacobs' first ready-to-wear through the current era — renews itself continuously, but the permanent collection is the foundation: Speedy, Keepall, Neverfull, and hard-sided pieces that connect directly to 1854. The Florence boutique concentrates the range on Via della Vigna Nuova.

The hard-sided pieces and special orders connect most directly to Asnières; ask about hot-stamping initials, the house's oldest personalization, offered on most leather goods.