It was in 1858 that the eponymous Louis Vuitton created his first trunk: flat on its top and sides, the innovation allowed them to be stacked ad infinitum to house the growing wardrobes of the burgeoning travelling classes. One early client was Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III, an admirer of the opulent crinolines of Marie Antoinette who would purportedly not wear a gown more than once.
In the time since, the Louis Vuitton trunk has metamorphosed to house a series of eclectic objects, from a folding bed (made for the explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in 1905) to a library of books (created for Ernest Hemingway, it sold at a 2024 Christie’s auction for €88,200), alongside caviar boxes, tea sets, hot air balloons and teddy bears. And, since the late 1980s, a series of ceremonial ‘trophy trunks’ which are used to transport the sporting world’s biggest prizes (the first was an epi blue leather trunk in 1988 for the America's Cup, the world’s oldest international sporting trophy). So the tagline goes: ‘Victory travels in Louis Vuitton’.
Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Novak Djokovic in this evening’s Australian Open men’s singles final
This weekend in Melbourne, Australia, the house continued its partnership with the Australian Open, creating a pair of bespoke monogrammed trunks to house the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, which are awarded to the tennis grand slam’s women’s and men’s singles winners respectively. On Saturday night at Rod Laver Arena, in a three-set thriller defined by shifts in momentum between the players, Kazakhstan national Elena Rybakina, a former Wimbledon champion, beat world number one Aryna Sabalenka (and four-time grand slam winner) to the first major of the year.
Meanwhile, earlier this evening, back at Rod Laver Arena, Spanish tennis wunderkind Carlos Alcaraz – himself a Louis Vuitton ambassador – triumphed in a tense four-set match against Novak Djokovic, a great of the game whose 24 grand slam titles have cemented him as the most decorated men’s player of tennis’s contemporary era (in sporting parlance: the GOAT). An emotional Djokovic praised Alcaraz’s performance as ‘legendary’, while also shouting out his former rival, Rafa Nadal, who watched on from the crowd.
‘What you're doing is really inspiring, not only for the tennis players, but for any athlete or person around the world,’ Alcaraz said in his winner’s speech, addressing Djokovic. ‘For me, it's been an honour sharing the locker room [with you], sharing the court and watching you play.’ Though the Spanish world number one was making history of his own: at just 22 years old, Alcaraz is the youngest ever to achieve a career grand slam, a record which has held since 1938 (he beat out Don Budge by just days). ‘Nobody knows how hard I’ve been working to get this trophy,’ he continued.
The trunks were each created in the house’s historic atelier in Asnières-sur-Seine, which is now primarily used by the 300-or-so-artisans who work on special commissions such as these (just north of Paris, the suburb is where Louis Vuitton moved his business in 1859 after outgrowing his store in the centre of the city). In differing sizes – the women’s trophy is taller than the men’s – the two trunks are encased in the house’s signature monogram canvas and feature a contrasting V emblem, standing for both ‘Victory’ and ‘Vuitton’.
Though the trunk is also a pragmatic object: inside, a microfibre insert in ‘Australian Open blue’ (anybody who has watched the tournament will be familiar with the bright oceanic hue) keeps the trophy safe and in place when being carried or in transit (‘AO on the Road’ sees the trophy tour around the local state of Victoria before the tournament’s start). Meanwhile, a number of intricate lozines, locks and clasps – exact versions of those originally used by Louis Vuitton himself in the 1860s – keep the trunk tightly sealed.
So much so that those tasked with opening the trunk at each final had to undergo a rehearsal earlier in the day (the various clasps must be opened in a specific order; for the Australian Open, it was done in unison in pairs). At the women’s final, it was the turn of BamBam – a Thai pop sensation and Louis Vuitton ambassador – alongside American tennis player Jennifer Capriati, who won the Australian Open in 2001 and 2002 (marking 25 years since her first win at the event, she also presented Rybakina with the trophy at the winner’s ceremony). Meanwhile, tonight, actress Chloë Grace Moretz, another house ambassador, and Russian tennis player Marat Safin, who won the Australian Open in 2005, did the honours, opening the trunk just prior to the men’s final’s start.
BamBam and Jennifer Capriati at the Australian Open women’s singles final
They are just one of a long line of trophy trunks Louis Vuitton has created to bolster its connections to the sporting world – alongside the Australian Open and the America’s Cup, custom trunks have been created for the FIFA World Cup, the NBA, the Paris 2024 Olympics and Roland Garros. More recently, Louis Vuitton created the 2025 and 2026 trophy trunks for each of Formula 1’s 24 international circuits, a move which coincided with LVMH’s major 10-year sponsorship of the event (the luxury conglomerate is the parent company of Louis Vuitton). As part of this, Louis Vuitton was named the title sponsor of the Melbourne Grand Prix, the first race of the season, while in 2026, the house will also become the title sponsor of the Monaco Grand Prix. The new season will begin this March at the Melbourne Grand Prix circuit.