All packed and ready to go

An upcoming Louis Vuitton show in Shanghai will tell the story of the brand's history, Chen Jie reports. 

In 1835, a 14-year-old boy left Anchay, his native village in the Jura Mountains of eastern France, close to the country's border with Switzerland. He traveled on foot, reaching Paris two years later.

He was immediately hired as an apprentice by a company that manufactured boxes and other material used in packing everyday objects.

Nineteen years later, he founded his own company-Louis Vuitton-in the French capital.

Olivier Saillard, the former director of the Palais Galliera in Paris, was moved by the true story of Louis Vuitton, who left home very young and later established the fashion house and luxury-retail brand bearing his name. People forget the names behind brands, Saillard says, adding that he wanted to look back at the founder of the Louis Vuitton company.

As a result an exhibition, Volez Voguez Voyagez, a retrospective on both the founder and brand, was held in 2015 in Paris. It toured Tokyo the following year, and Seoul and New York last year. Now, the same display will be on at the Shanghai Exhibition Center from Friday to Feb 1, the exhibition's curator Saillard says.