The Jet Set

Luxury luggage brand RIMOWA delivers in the style stakes. We look at how this 120-year-old brand stays ahead of the curve and designs for the future

With cutting edge designs, functionality at its forefront and sustainability at its core, luxury luggage brand RIMOWA is one that should be on your radar. While it’s a brand that’s been delivering premium luggage for 120 years, it’s under the leadership of Alexandre Arnault, who became the brand’s CEO at the age of 26, along with being acquired by the LVMH group, that’s redefined the brand into a new league of its own.

In the last three years alone, Arnault and his team have secured partnership with some of the most well-known brands in the fashion industry including Fendi, Off-White, Supreme, Moncler and most recently Dior. This move has firmly put RIMOWA on the map as one to watch. According to WWD, just as LVMH acquired the brand, RIMOWA was only wrapping up around $485 million in sales. However, as of 2019, under Arnault’s leadership and realignment of the brand, that number has now been far surpassed.

Collaboration is something that has become deeply entwined with the brand’s design ethos, Emelie de Vitis, the Chief Marketing Officer for RIMOWA tells Emirates Woman. “It’s always an honour to work with houses like Dior, Fendi and Moncler, among many others,” she adds. “We learn from each other and challenge our existing understanding of how our products look and feel. Through collaborations, we get to focus on what is essential for RIMOWA and what can evolve in unexpected, exciting ways.” This is just one of the ways the brand has set itself apart from other competitors, at its core “form has always been just as important as function”, de Vitis says.

This has been true from the brand’s inception in 1898. Originally founded as a company focusing on saddlery in Cologne, Germany, founder Paul Morszeck evolved the business into crafting suitcases out of wood. However, it was in the 1930s when the brand took a turning point which would define itself throughout the decades. Firstly, the name RIMOWA was born after Paul’s son Richard Morszeck became involved in the running of the company. The word ‘RIMOWA’ is actually an acronym for Richard Morszeck Warenzeichen, with the latter word meaning ‘trademark’ in German. In the latter half of the decade, in 1937, an apparent fire broke out in the factory destroying the majority of the company’s materials. What survived of the blaze materials wise was some aluminium, which became the key substance of the pieces from RIMOWA.

Over a century down the line, the key designs for the brand still remain etched in their ethos, but now at the heart for RIMOWA and what it stands for is “purposeful travel”. “We expertly design and engineer the resilient tools needed for a lifetime of journeys, crafting them to be capable of enduring all the little turbulences along the way, while still moving effortlessly and elegantly through even the most bustling airport terminal, train station or beyond,” de Vitis says. However, the current climate of staying put due to the pandemic has forced the brand to go against its very essence. “As a business, but also as a team of curious, driven individuals, we’re made to

move,” de Vitis explains. As a company deeply rooted in travel, it’s meant the brand has been particularly sensitive and affected by the limited movement, which has meant RIMOWA has had to look for other ways to communicate with their community. In fact, it has sparked a reflective movement for the company, which has recently launched the New Horizons and #TripsChangeUs campaigns, putting forward the notion that travel isn’t just about the act itself but the lasting memories and experiences you take with you long after you have left a destination. “It was important for us to share our feeling that, for us, travel is not the location; it’s what you learn about yourself that makes the memories of a trip worth holding on to,” de Vitis says. “And that’s determined by your mindset and whether you choose to find purpose in how and why you move from one place to the next.”

Despite the current pause, it hasn’t stopped RIMOWA from planning for the future, which is looking towards the consumer-conscious traveller and how they can support their community with their brand identity as a whole. “As a new generation of travellers come of age, we’re seeing a fresh definition of how and what it means to move in today’s world,” de Vitis says. “Hospitality, mobility, fashion all find themselves in the commercial intersection for today’s consumer-conscious traveller. These crosscurrents bring with them the opportunity of innovation in the product, retail experience, and brand identity. As we explore and implement new ways to anticipate shifts in trends, it is important for us to resonate with these new generations as we forge ahead with uncharged creative ideas.”

As part of their ethos of catering to the consumer-conscious traveller, RIMOWA also ensures sustainability is at the heart of its design ethos. From the materials they choose, to the techniques they employ, to the durability of their luggage pieces – sustainability is at the company’s core. “When we speak of ‘luggage designed for a lifetime’, we mean this from our luggage’s engineering to our renowned aftersales service, trusted with thoughtfully catering to our client’s needs at Client Care Centre’s around the world for decades with the knowledge and expertise accumulated over more than a century,” de Vitis says.

De Vitis also reveals there is plenty of exciting things around the corner for RIMOWA. As you’d expect the brand is focusing on expanding its core luggage range, but with a slight twist. “We’re increasingly looking to cater to customers beyond the moments typically associated with travel, moments not necessarily associated with arrivals and departures,” she says. This includes the exciting launch of RIMOWA Eyewear in June 2020. While it’s beyond the luggage sphere RIMOWA is used to, but the same core production values continue. “Created with mobility in mind, this new collection explores beyond what we typically consider to be in the travel product ecosystem, building on the brand’s history of innovation while preserving its iconic tradition of quality, engineering and craftsmanship,” de Vitis says. So, it’s clear that while this travel company is standing still in terms of location, it’s moving forward in every other way just as it has done for the past 120 years.