New in for November is a book in their Fine Print range - Louis Vuitton - 100 Legendary Trunks

http://www.louisvuitton.com/us/flash/index.jsp?&direct1=cate_b_w&direct2=cat10161&direct3=cat1410424&direct4=prod1510028&campaign=p_1110_100trunks

Selling at $170.00 this book is gorgeous. 496 pages that covers, shows and details 100 trunk designs that have gained a place of legendary status.

There are over 800 rich, sharp and beautifully detailed photographs to drool over as well. The trunk-bed, steamer trunk, tea case, toiletry kit, circus trunk, library trunk, and caviar box are just a few of the many incredible pieces featured in the book and they are accompanied with the engaging and fascinating stories of how they actually came to be created. There is even a full technical review which is the basic manual for the artisanal trunkmaker, revealing the secrets of making a Louis Vuitton trunk.

Although I shall never be the owner of an LV trunk (I don't dwell in that globe trotting, explorer style of living sadly) I do still love to dream and hope and this book helps the dreams gain full flavour and depth!

There's an interesting report here from the Balita.com lifestyle website about a bust that was conducted in Manila, netting a total of 11,769 assorted counterfeit Louis Vuitton products that were worth $3.5 million!

You can read the full report at http://balita.com/?p=1206

One thought that springs to my mind when I read stories such as this (well, two actually!).

Firstly - great, got rid of a load more fakes. Yippee!

Secondly - although it is all well and good going after the sellers and distributors of these items - shouldn't LV be working at pinpointing the actual manufactruers of these fake items and getting them shut down?

Now, I'm not innocent in the ways of the street - for sure I'm aware that LV will have a full operation going after these guys, have already considered the need to do this in order to seriously dent and impair the fakes industry - but what of the law behind it?

Until draconian laws are introduced where the real people responsible for the manufacture of the fakes are imprisoned and have all their assets stripped from them and their family so that they or anyone else are too scared to rip off items - LV and luxury companies with goods that are open to being copied will always be fighting a holding position at best!

In the words of all good college professors - Discuss!

Here's a teaser shot for everyone.

Check out the picture of Luara Dundovic at http://www.stylebistro.com/lookbook/Laura+Dundovic/3lE6l0b7Puh

Anyone care to guess at which LV clutch this one is?

Little fun teaser to get your brain working this morning!) 

What can I say - we've been away for AGES - but we're back now and raring to go! 

The blog is going to be the most updated and frequent part of the site now, so keep checking back for the latest LV news - or conversely, just sign up to the RSS feed instead!

There's a few changes that have taken place whilst we've been on extended holiday and we'll try and get to changing the major ones through out the site as and when we can. Those that are the more pressing - we'll run through the blog first and adapt in the site later.

First up and a major change since a year and a half ago is that the Louis Vuitton online store eLuxury is no more apparently! You can now go to the LV site direct to buy the goods online. Should hopefully stop the problem of stock being unavailable and the information given about the bags being wrong here and there. It's yet to be seen just how user friendly the new ordering system will be though!

If you've any experience using the online LV store - drop a comment and let us know how you found it! Miss eLuxury? Drop another comment and tell us why!

Intersting post here from the Herald Sun paper in Australia, about a new Louis Vuitton store opening at Crown Casino as well as details o ftheir A$ turnover for 2008 - 2009! http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/fighting-the-retail-fakes/story-e6frfh4f-1225945006604

Part I love the most though - don't you just laugh at all the different meanings of the same word in English the world over?

Third sentence from the article reads "Mr Debains indicated he was well aware many an Australian nicked over to Asia for a holiday and came back with a handful of designer knock-offs." Now in US terms, nicked = 'notched with a knife', UK = 'stolen' and Australia? I'm guessing 'hopped' or 'nipped over' but if there are any Aussies reading who can explain fully - let's be having you! 

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We know just how hard it can be to find sellers of authentic only LV.

So, we're happy to announce the inclusion of some new pages to the site here that list out all the auctions currently being run by those sellers we believe sell only authentic items.

Please note - we say 'Believe' sell authentic only. You'll know just as well as we do that people can change and sellers who have had an immaculate record to date suddenly get naughty and sell a fake or get caught out themselves by a top quality fake.

There is a new guide about to be uploaded to the site here that shows you an amazing points scoring system to use that helps you weed out the rubbish and replicas from the real thing. Sign up to grab a copy of it, download it and have a good read.

Use that system on the auctions shown on our new Recommended Sellers pages and you should hopefully be laughing all the way to the shops with your new LV authentic bag!

Here's one to watch out for girls.

It's been reported that some of the white bags from the Multicolore range are showing color bleed - predominantly from the red lining on the inside.

This seems to be affecting bags made around the 2003 / 2004 era of production and appears as a yellowing of the white leather on the outsideof the bag.

The worrying thing though is that various people have mentioned it to their SAs and they've all had different answers - which indicates LV don't actually know for sure if they've cured the problem or not.

Apparently, the bleeding is caused by the glue that was originally being used in the Multicolore range. (Remeber, the MC range launched in 2003 so this would be the first run of production!) One shopper was told that they now use adhesive strips instead of glue - another was told that they think they have solved the problem but have had a few bags back recently!

So - what to do if you were set on an MC bag?

First of all - don't panic. This isn't something that is affecting every white MC bag, far from it, it just seems to be a few at the moment. It's unlikely you'll get the problem so breath - relax.

A few options for those who want to try and cater for the chance of it happening to their bags, with the main one being buy the Black version, not the white, just in case? Now I know that some of you only like a certain bag in White, not black (like - me and the MC Pochette!) so if this isn't an option, make sure you talk to your SA when you make the purchase and ask her about the known problem of the occassional color bleed from the lining to the leather.

Talk to her about it nicely - not so much as to get an answer from here but, more importantly, make sure the conversation states what you should do if the color does bleed. Get her to advise you what you should do in those circumstances and make sure you get her name if you don't know it already!

That way, if - and I say IF - the problem hits your bag, you know who to quote when you take it back to the store and ask for a refund / exchange!!

What do Mikhail Gorbachev and Louis Vuitton have in common?

Click Here to Find Out

Well, it had to happen at some point - LV goes multimedia.

Word reaches us that LV have released a DVD in France which is due to hit the US shores September 5th.

The DVD takes us on an inside LV look see. Directed by Loic Progent, (creator of the Signe Channel documentary) this behind the scenes documentary shows the steps of the design process - including the financial decisions and discussions that go into a new line - and apparently has quite a few rib tickling discourses by Marc Jacobs. 

Anna Wintour, Sofia Coppola, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Peyton and Yayoi Kusama are some of those included.

Although this Louis Vuitton dvd is not officialy due to hit until the 5th - you can find a copy being pre-sold on ebay already!

Now there's a surprise