The Paris Olympics is selling luxury to the world

Stroll down the Champs-Elysee and there’s only one thing people are talking about on the ground: the trunk.

Paris 2024 organising committee head Tony Estanguet, left, and LVMH’s Antoine Arnault

The sporting pursuits of Australia’s athletes may be dominating headlines, but stroll down the Champs-Elysee and there’s only one thing people are talking about on the ground: the trunk.

What crowds are referring to is not actually a trunk at all – it’s a hoarding, made to resemble one giant iteration of French luxury brand Louis Vuitton’s most iconic monogrammed piece.

Covering nearly 6000sq m, the trompe-l’oeil obscures the construction of the first Louis Vuitton hotel (due to open in 2026). Although at face value it could very well be a statement of the French brand’s omnipresence at the Olympics.

This has been the first Games of its type, where a luxury conglomerate has come on board as premium partner and commanded such a presence and integration into the Olympic Games itself.

The trompe-l’oeil of the Louis Vuitton hotel in Paris.

The LVMH sponsorship, worth €150m ($250m), has featured a selection of the group’s brands proudly on show this past week.

The petit mains of Dior couture created the unforgettable dresses worn by Celine Dion and Lady Gaga in the opening ceremony (currently on display at the Galerie Dior exhibition space); jeweller Chaumet embedded an actual piece of iron from the Eiffel Tower in the Olympic and Paralympic medals; and Berluti was tapped to craft the French team’s uniform.

But it’s the jewel in the LVMH crown – Louis Vuitton – that has played the most significant role in terms of integration through the whole Games, particularly where there has been any sort of pomp and ceremony.

Before the Games, the brand unveiled two official Medal Trunks, inspired by the famous Louis Vuitton Malle Coiffeuse (dressing table trunk) with drawers specially designed to hold 468 medals.

The Louis Vuitton medal trunk in front of the Eiffel Tower.

These were made by hand in the workshops of Asnieres, an idyllic pocket of countryside where Louis Vuitton has been crafting its pieces since 1859.

Then there was the matching Torch Trunk to safeguard Mathieu Lehanneur’s famous design that made its way through the hands of 10,000 people to the last torchbearer of them all: Pharrell Wil­liams, Louis Vuitton men’s creative director.

At the top of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, he raised the torch in spectacular fashion, in tribute, said the brand, “to the values of excellence and universality conveyed by and practised in sports, values about which Louis Vuitton cares deeply”.

Louis Vuitton has created Trophy Trunks before – over the past 35 years, in fact – for the likes of the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, the Rugby World Cup, Ballon d’Or and even the Australian Open.

At the opening ceremony there was a tribute to the brand on Pont Neuf, the heart of LV headquarters in Paris. There, in a special living tableau, the final medal trunk was shown being crafted, then lowered from the heights of the building to a troupe of dancers who guided it to an awaiting boat via an acrobatic performance that involved spinning gilded luggage trolleys.

The piece de resistance came when the final trunks made their way down the Seine towards the Trocadero to the soundtrack of Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables.

An Olympic medal bearer with the Louis Vuitton trays.

At the venues, Louis Vuitton has been part of every medal ceremony courtesy of the 515 medal bearers, all young French men and women who are members of national sports federations.

As a homage to the last time the City of Light hosted the Games back in 1924, the silhouette was 1920s-inspired and paid tribute to the birth of sportswear complete with a traditional gavroche cap; the jersey also came from upcycled fabric from different LVMH brands. They bore trays lined with Louis Vuitton’s Damier canvas and a matte black leather created by artisans at the Beaulieu-sur-Layon workshop in the Loire Valley.

Visitors to the Olympics can own their piece of Olympic history courtesy of a limited-edition Paris Sport version of Louis Vuitton’s City Guide series ($115 in a boxed set). Meanwhile, VIPs and special guests of Louis Vuitton have been visiting Asnieres to take in a special exhibition honouring the brand’s connection with sport.

An artisan in the Louis Vuitton trunk atelier.

The whole exercise has been grandiose in its splendour – would we expect anything less from the French? – but also felt authentic.

As LVMH chairman and chief executive Bernard Arnault told CNBC in the lead-up to the Games, the company’s integration and presence had to make sense.

“We are just not going to give money and say, OK, you thank us, but that’s it. We wanted to find a way to show through the Olympics to the world that France as itself is a creative country, is a refined country, is a craftsmanship country,” Arnault said.

As for what’s next, wandering around the atelier of Asnieres it’s business as usual.

A man wearing a white T-shirt and black apron hammers Louis Vuitton’s famous brass corners with a childlike wooden mallet on to a small monogrammed case.

Around the corner a woman sits serenely in silence painting the top of what will become a green ostrich Rose des Vents handbag with white glue from a small glass pot (final retail value €8300).

Inside it’s curiously serene and completely at odds with the buzz on the Champs-Elysee.

American fashion brands from across the Atlantic are surely taking note; it hs been an exercise of taking the best of a luxury brand, blowing it up to scale and selling it to the world.