Unpacking Rimowa's Cool Cachet
For 125 years, Rimowa has been the luxury luggage maker with a creative streak and cool cred. So what's next for the label?
Since its founding 125 years ago, Rimowa has carved out a niche as a luxury luggage maker with serious cool cachet, complete with a rep for being a collaboration-heavy hub of creativity. That’s the big takeaway from the label’s Seit 1898 (“since 1898” in German) retrospective that kicked off in Tokyo last month and will wrap in the brand’s birth city of Cologne next spring. During the opening of the travelling showcase, we sat down with the company’s senior vice-president of product and marketing Emelie de Vitis – the brains behind Rimowa’s hyper-modern campaigns and tie-ups who played a key role in the conceptualisation of the exhibition – to ask where this forward-thinking house is headed next.
Emelie de Vitis is the brains behind Rimowa's collaborations that have seen cultural icons such as Rihanna and Off-White joining forces with the luggagmaker.
The Seit 1898 exhibition in Japan begins with a major showcase of archival designs. What were some of the enlightening moments when going through the pieces to be displayed?
“Cologne is where the company was founded and where we store our archives. Today, though, our archive pieces are displayed in many of our stores around the world as well. We also launched a beautiful book in 2020 called Rimowa: An Archive, Since 1898 (a 274-page tome published by Rizzoli and sold at the brand’s stores) that really allowed us to lay out our foundation and document all of our archive pieces ... Working on this exhibition made us realise how important it is to look after our archives because there have been times when we took for granted the products we’ve developed and didn’t necessarily document them as well as we should have ... The experience also reminded us of how lucky we are to have a lot of clients give us their old suitcases and play a part in building this legacy. At our Client Care Centres (how the brand refers to its service centres, one of which is located here at its Mandarin Gallery store) around the world, our technicians would ask the owners of suitcases that they find old and interesting if they would allow us to showcase them. Sometimes, we even ask if we can buy and keep them. Specific to Seit 1898, there were customers who gave their luggage to us simply because they’re happy to see the bag travel as part of the exhibition.” (Seit 1898 next pops up in New York in September and will wrap in Cologne next year.)
A Rimowa retrospective wouldn’t be complete without showcasing your many memorable collaborations. How do you keep collaboration fatigue at bay for consumers though?
“What we always strive for is co-creation. It’s never about just adding a logo and moving on. A really big effort is involved in co-creating something that’ll surprise and delight our audiences, and we take a long time to develop collabs. It usually takes between two and two-and-a-half years before something comes out, and we limit ourselves to a maximum of three projects a year. The process requires a lot of product development, but it also offers a good playground for us to experiment with innovation. If you think about the transparent Off-White X Rimowa suitcase from 2018, its design doesn’t sound complicated, but it was a technical breakthrough for us. We also test opportunities in the market. Take the Porsche Hand-Carry Case Pepita from 2022. We didn’t know if people would want a Rimowa without wheels (the Porsche 911-inspired suitcase crafted out of the brand’s signature grooved aluminium was designed like a briefcase, with no rollers and telescopic handle), but it became a massive hit.”
The western German city of Cologne is Rimowa country – and where the brand was founded and its factory (above) and archives are located in.
Another highlight in Seit 1898 is an installation of a deconstructed Rimowa aluminium suitcase suspended in mid-air to showcase the craftsmanship and many parts that go into the luggage. Break it down for us: just what does such artistry mean for the traveller?
“What sets us apart from other luggage makers is that we own all of our factories and produce everything ourselves, giving us total control of the quality. If you visit our Cologne factory, you’ll see crazy complex heavy machinery, but you’ll also see craftsmen or artisans adding the rivets or stitching the interiors by hand. (All the 220 components of a Rimowa Original aluminium suitcase, for instance, are also said to be assembled together manually.) For me, the most magical part is watching a technician hammering the suitcase and going in for a listen of that resonance that indicates that all parts have been perfectly assembled. Not everything can be replaced with a robot. It’s that combination of engineering and craftsmanship that makes a Rimowa suitcase unique and lets customers know they’ll get excellence. That’s why we offer a lifetime warranty (on suitcases purchased from July 25, 2022) – we’re very confident in the quality of our products and for them to last.”
A seemingly light tweak can go a long way. Another way Rimowa has flexed its creative genius is through the introduction of its signature luggage in unezpected and highly collectible seasonal or limited‐edition colours. Earlier this year, for example, it launched a calming off‐white shade dubbed Ivory (top left) and, just last month, the cool Arctic Blue (top right) – inspired by the deep azure waters of the region it’s named after. Even the brand’s core colours are unconventional by industry standards and include White – as seen on the Personal cross-body bag at the bottom left corner – and Slate, the shade of the Essential Cabin suitcase at the bottom right.
Travel has rebounded with a vengeance. From your observations, how have our travel habits changed and how has this affected the way Rimowa designs?
“Demand for our luggage has been very strong – demand in 2022, for example, was significantly ahead of pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Seeing how keen people are to travel and with a sturdy companion like our luggage is really satisfying. For us to be back so strongly shows we have the right products for the people who now want to travel with something extremely durable and of the best quality … Customers are not necessarily buying more suitcases, but are instead buying ones that can stand the test of time because more people now are sustainability-minded. Long gone are the days when you buy low-quality suitcases you expect to break after just one or two trips … I think people are also packing lighter due to not just the weight restrictions imposed by airlines, but also an awareness of how, when travelling, weight has an impact on carbon footprint. Research on materials will be key. We want to improve resources and our materials’ climate impact … People now travel with more purpose. Since more know that there’s an environmental impact when travelling, they don’t just go on holiday to take a selfie on a beach. They want the trip to be about discovery or betterment, and to really maximise their time overseas.”
To showcase it's commitment to quality manufacturing, Rimowa now offers lifetime warranty on suitcases purchased from July 25, 2022.
Speaking of sustainability, how does Rimowa tackle this huge concern?
“First, that we offer lifetime warranty is a big statement. Since mid-2022, we’ve also developed the Re-Crafted programme for Germany, where we invite owners of used or damaged aluminium suitcases to return them to us. We fix them so they’re fully functional, then sell them as pre-owned pieces with their dents and scratches; these sell out within minutes. We promote these used suitcases in campaigns as well, to show that it’s completely fine to have dents and scratches in one’s luggage. The initiative is currently being tried and tested in Japan; then, we’ll roll it out to the US. Logistically, it’s quite complex to manage the flux of these products, so we’re taking it step by step, but the idea is to introduce it to all our markets eventually. To complete our sustainability formula, we have a moulding facility in Pelhrimov in the Czech Republic, where we produce our polycarbonate suitcases. All the leftover parts from the sheets of polycarbonate get moulded together to make new components for hidden parts of the suitcase, which allow us to limit wastage. This is part of our continuous efforts to improve our sustainability push to the point where we have zero wastage in our production process.”
Ahead, we showcase the designs from the brand that showcase its fashion-forward ethos.
Neon luggage (2021)
Dessin-Aluminum Suitcase No. 221 (1966)
Salsa Crocodile Case (2012)
Limbo Piccolo (1994)
Guitar Case Prototype (c. 2000s)
Grooved Aluminium Case (c. 1980s)
Bass Transport Case (c. 1960s)
Industrial Series No. 294 (1975)
Rimowa x Chaos (2021)
Rimowa x Porsche (2022)
Rimowa x Doublet (2021)
Rimowa x Paradis (2021)
Rimowa x Ashley Williams (2021)
Rimowa x Enfants Riches Deprimes (2021)
Rimowa x PleasureRimowa x Paradis (2021)s (2021)
Rimowa x Pizzaslime Rimowa x Paradis (2021)(2021)
Rimowa x Ma®ket (2021)
Rimowa x Off-White luggage belonging to Takashi Murakami
Topas Business Trolley belonging to Patti Smith
Salsa Air Check-In M luggage belonging to Adwoa Aboah
Classic Cabin luggage belonging to Dr. Woo
Pilot Multiwheel luggage belonging to Peggy Guo
Original Trunk Plus luggage belonging to Roger Federer
Original Trunk S luggage belonging to Sarah Andalman
Duraluminum Suitcase No. 922 belonging to Michael Moore
This article is adapted from a story that first appeared in the July 2023 Graphic Design Edition of FEMALE