Bundle of Joy

When a young Louis Vuitton left his family’s broken home in Anchay, France to seek fame and fortune in Paris, he did so with the clothes on his back and a makeshift piece of luggage — fashioned from a bedsheet, knotted and secured at the end of a broomstick — to carry his belongings. Unfortunately, Vuitton would find his invention the subject of derision from wayward Frenchmen he encountered along his journey. He swore that if he ever got an internship with a proper malletier, he’d make those itinerant sods rue the day they ever laughed at his pride and joy — what he called, his “bundle stick.” That day did mercifully come as Vuitton went on to become a custom box-maker — eventually building a empire 'round his patterned, canvas trunks — whilst in a twist of fate, vagabonds began crafting “hobo sticks” of their own. Today, the company that bears the Louis Vuitton® name is into all sorts of bloody nonsense — apparel, jewelry, marijuana pipes — beyond the company’s stock-in-trade, but I’m delighted to report they’ve taken a page from their history book and the Louis Vuitton “Bindle®” is now available for online delivery. Form — and fashion! — are again following function, as post-collegiate hipster dipshits enjoy the economy of this “organic” travel accessory whilst touring Europe on mum and dad's last dime. A fitting tribute, methinks, to the memory of Louis Vuitton, celebrating a deathday™ on this day (February 27, 1892). Happy Anni-hearse-ary™, Citizen Bag Man!