Everyone is in the middle of FIFA 2014 World Cup adulation right now with soccer fans surfacing out of every nook and cranny. Making their second appearance at a World Cup is luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton, who have again been commissioned by FIFA to make a case for the coveted trophy.
After a first appearance on the football field in 2010 in South Africa, the Louis Vuitton case, specially designed to carry the famous trophy, will be on July 13th, the final day of the Cup, in the stadium of Maracana in Rio of Janeiro.
Handmade in Louis Vuitton’s historic Asnières workshop near Paris, the case has been meticulously designed to accommodate the celebrated Trophy, which measures 36 cm in height, weighs 6.175 kg and is made of solid 18-carat gold with a base of malachite. Covered in Louis Vuitton’s iconic Monogram canvas, the travel case is fitted with the company’s signature brass lock and corners. The case opens from the front and at the top to allow the Trophy to be easily removed when, at the final game on 13th July, it will be delivered to the captain of the winning team.
The special order for FIFA perpetuates Louis Vuitton’s long tradition of creating elegant and ingenious cases for travellers to transport their most precious belongings. Over the course of 150 years, the Asnières workshop has produced an astonishing variety of custom-made designs, from the foldout trunk-bed that equipped the African explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza to a secretary trunk for 1,000 cigars and to a portable tea service for the Maharajah of Baroda. The workshop also crafted the trunk that holds the world’s oldest sporting trophy, the famous silver ewer of the America’s Cup, which dates back to 1851.
Each special order must respect Louis Vuitton’s spirit of travel as well as unite the imagination of its designers and craftsmen to create something truly unique and a one-off.
Which country do you think will be holding the winners trophy at the end of the 2014 World Cup?
