Trendsetters Study Tour Takes Students to Louis Vuitton Workshop in Irwindale
Students participating in the Trendsetters Industry Study Tour visited the Louis Vuitton Irwindale workshop on May 24th to witness firsthand the luxury brand’s artisanal product development process. They saw artisans contributing to the many different operations that go into a single bag. In the afternoon, the study tour took students to the Louis Vuitton retail store on Rodeo Drive to meet with the leadership team and learn about store operations and product assortments.
Louis Vuitton recently hired Merchandise Product Development Alumna Dyamon Jones as a Process Engineer at their workshops in San Dimas and Irwindale. At the beginning of the year, FIDM was invited to visit Dyamon, tour the facility, and see how Dyamon is contributing to the success of this iconic brand.
FIDM met with Training and Communication Manager Clementine Tremelot who provided an overview of the great careers they have to offer qualified candidates. She gave an overview of the brand which spans 165 years and 25 workshops, and has been operating the San Dimas workshops since 1966. They recently opened a workshop in Dallas which is growing rapidly.
The first Louis Vuitton workshop was opened in 1854. They first specialized in rigid cases and canvas covered wooden steamer trunks, and Louis Vuitton’s craftsmanship made him rise to fame quickly.
In 1859, he bought empty land in Asnieres and built his house and workshop there. For the next 120 years it would be the only LV workshop in the world, and it is still in operation today. In the late '80s, the Vuitton family sold the company and the brand expanded when it merged to become LVMH.
The workshop locations are a deliberate choice. They were strategically built near where artisans lived. For example, Louis Vuitton built one near a leather goods school. Shoes were made in the South of France, so they built a workshop there as well.
They started crafting Louis Vuitton leather goods in San Dimas in 1966. For 53 years they’ve been making bags in San Dimas and the artisans are experts. They train their artisans in-house.
When they expanded to the U.S., Los Angeles was an obvious choice because of the thriving textile industry. Now 50% of the LV products sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S. To meet client demands, the rest is shipped from France.
All bags made in the U.S. are only sold in the U.S. and Canada. They make full leather bags in San Dimas.
Key artisans are chosen for each style, to determine the best development process. This is where FIDM Alumna Dyamon Jones’ expertise comes into play. The key artisans work with Dyamon to create the first bag of a particular style—the mockup. Sometimes key artisans become product developers. They learn how to be artisans at the workshop.
Dyamon guides projects working with the technical and production teams. Her position is a balance between the creative and the analytical. She draws on her materials science knowledge in her work, and her previous career as a mechanical engineer gave her experience in working with project timelines and the critical path. She also works in cross-functional communication. “Soft skills are so important,” she said.
They toured us through the facility and explained important processes, such as the 3-step process for cutting leather: first, digitalize the hide; second, nesting; and third, the cutting machine. Louis Vuitton creates with hides from cow, bull, goat, lamb, and veal, among others. Their leather comes from Belgium, Italy, and France, and Singapore when it comes to exotic hides like crocodile. Outside of California, they produce bags using crocodile, python, ostrich, and galuchat.
They walked us through splitting and skiving, stamping, painting, and embossing. We met the expert artisan who creates the holographic coated Keepall bag, a favorite from the Spring 2019 runway show, designed by Louis Vuitton men’s wear artistic director Virgil Abloh.
This season, Dyamon worked on the Saintonge bag (pictured above), a compact bag designed with the iconic monogram canvas and calfskin.
Categories: Merchandise Product Development
