Series ・ 10 parts

Empire of Brands: 150 Years of Luxury

In the 19th century, a single craftsman set out on foot for Paris. In an age when steamships and railways transformed travel, Louis Vuitton flattened the rounded lid of the trunk and created luggage that could be stacked. From a long fight against imitators came the Damier and the Monogram. Episode 1 traces the starting point of how a bag came to carry a story.

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01 The Trunk Born from Travel — Louis Vuitton and the Flat Lid That Changed the World In the 19th century, a single craftsman set out on foot for Paris. In an age when steamships and railways transformed travel, Louis Vuitton flattened the rounded lid of the trunk and created luggage that could be stacked. From a long fight against imitators came the Damier and the Monogram. Episode 1 traces the starting point of how a bag came to carry a story.
02 The Pride of the Harness Maker — Hermès and the Philosophy of an Empire in No Hurry In 1837, a workshop sewing harnesses for horses was born in a corner of Paris. The harness maker, all but doomed in the age of the automobile, survived by pouring its hand-stitching craft into bags and clothing. The scarcity and craftsmanship embodied in the Kelly and the Birkin. Episode 2 traces the philosophy of Hermès, which takes pride in not making things in a hurry.
03 Chanel's Revolution — The Garment That Freed Women from Their Bindings From bodies cinched by corsets to easy-moving jersey. Starting out as a milliner, 'Coco Chanel' redrew the very image of womanhood in the twentieth century through the little black dress and the No.5 perfume. The brilliance of a revolution, and the shadow that lingers from wartime. Episode 3 traces both sides with a neutral eye.
04 The Gucci Family's Glory and Discord — The Craftsman's Spirit of Florence A young man who had watched other nations' wealth up close in a London hotel opened a leather-goods shop in his native Florence in 1921. The dignity learned from saddlery, the bamboo bag, the leap onto the world stage. Yet behind the glory, a family was drawn into a whirlpool of discord. Episode 4 traces the light and the shadow with a neutral eye.
05 Revolt of the White Petals — The Day the New Look Changed the World In February 1947, a single suit unveiled in a Paris salon made a witness cry out, 'This is a revolution.' Casting off the cloth-rationing of wartime and restoring a woman's curves with a full, petal-like skirt, Dior's New Look opened the golden age of haute couture. A fact-based portrait of the era when designers shaped the times.
06 Why Did the Logo Get Cheap — Licensing, the Sweet Poison Money for merely lending a name — from the 1970s into the 80s, luxury brands grew drunk on the magic of licensing. First-rate names overflowed onto everything from toilet-seat covers to umbrellas, and Gucci's products eventually topped twenty thousand kinds. The more logos flood the world, the cheaper a brand becomes. A fact-based portrait of the management crisis into which glorious old houses fell.
07 The Wolf in Cashmere — How Arnault Invented the Empire Called LVMH Luxury had nearly destroyed its own value through reckless licensing. The man who rescued it was neither a designer nor a craftsman, but a single businessman who came from real estate. Why did Bernard Arnault arrive at the idea of bundling and owning brands? The story of how the LVMH empire was born.
08 The Country That Loved Brands — The Story of Japan, a Gold Mine The empire in Paris was sustained by an island nation far to the east. Why did the Japanese love brands so deeply? From postwar longing to the frenzy of the bubble, and on to maturity. And now, that gold mine is shifting toward China. A history-based account of luxury and its bond with Asia.
09 A Marriage with the Street — The Day Luxury Came Down to the Sidewalk Luxury brands that once took pride in their exclusivity joined hands with sneaker and skater culture. The collision of 'Louis Vuitton' and 'Supreme', the arrival of Virgil Abloh, and the logo revived by social media. Episode 9 traces what the gamble of going mainstream brought to luxury.
10 The True Nature of a First-Class Price — Why Are Brands So Expensive? The vast Chinese market, sustainability as a new conscience, the second market created by resale and secondhand, and from logo to experience. What is a first-class price the price of? At the end of a 150-year story that began with travel trunks, the final chapter surveys the present and future of luxury without rushing to an answer.