Since we are hot on the Louis Vuitton subject, it's a good chance I did something with the pictures I had taken back then of the Galleries Lafayette windows.
It was that year I discovered this story (pasted here from Wikipedia, where you can find all kinds of interesting facts about the brand, including history and knock-off action):
"The French book Louis Vuitton, A French Saga (authored by French journalist Stephanie Bonvicini and published by Paris-based Editions Fayard) tells how members of the Vuitton family actively aided the puppet government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain, increasing their wealth from their business affairs with the Nazis. (...).
Caroline Babulle, a spokeswoman for the publisher (Fayard) said, "They [Louis Vuitton Co.] have not contested anything in the book, but they are trying to bury it by pretending it doesn't exist." Responding to the book's release in 2004, a spokesman for LVMH stated that "this is ancient history...The book covers a period when it was family-run and long before it became part of LVMH. We are diverse, tolerant and all the things a modern company should be."
Another LVMH spokesman told the satirical magazine, Le Canard Enchainé, that "We don't deny the facts, but regrettably the author has exaggerated the Vichy episode,". That publication was the only French periodical to mention the book".
I feel this is tragic.
I should say at this point that I am totally persuaded that the company Louis Vuitton is today has nothing to do with it's horrible image back in the 2nd World War and that awful sign at the entrance of the boutique reading No Dogs. No Jews. Besides, Bernard Arnault himself, the president of LVMH is jewish, no?
Anyway, glad I shared this, feel free to draw your own conclusions.
