Rimowa—the iconic luggage brand famous for its grooved aluminum suitcases—is stepping into a new category: leather handbags.
Today, the brand launches the Groove Collection, four leather bags that come in a range of silhouettes, including a shopper, a hobo, and two cross-body purses, priced between $1,200 and $2,150. Like everything Rimowa creates, these bags have an architectural aesthetic with handles and grooves reminiscent of the suitcases, and the pieces are all gender-neutral.
It’s a big move for Rimowa, allowing it to compete for the first time with other luxury accessories brands like Louis Vuitton and Chanel.
Rimowa was founded in 1898 in Cologne, Germany, where it is still does the majority of its manufacturing. For most of the brand’s history, it has focused on crafting highly functional, durable, and well engineered suitcases that have a cult status among frequent travelers. But over the last decade, the brand has gone through a transformation.
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In 2016, the brand was acquired by the French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Dior. Under Alexandre Arnault (son of LVMH founder Bernard Arnault) who served as CEO from 2016 to 2021, Rimowa began positioning itself as a luxury brand with strong fashion chops. Rimowa collaborated with everyone from Virgil Abloh to Supreme and Dior to Rick Owens.
It also began expanding beyond its expertise in rolling luggage and has expanded into other products, like travel bags and accessories. Last year, for instance, it launched an aluminum handbag called the Original Bag that looked like a micro version of the suitcase. “We’re still very much focused on the concept of travel,” says Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert, Rimowa’s CEO. “We’re thinking about the idea of mobility, and all the ways we can use our expertise to make products that can help people on their commutes, whether that’s across countries or through their day.”
As part of this exploration, the company has also considered new materials. In 2023, for instance, the company created a $3,450 suitcase that is wrapped in leather. Given the brand’s focus on craftsmanship, Bonnet-Masimbert says that it was no small thing for the company to go beyond its expertise in aluminum and polycarbonate. “The craftspeople in our factories spend years developing their craft, so it takes time for them to understand how to work with a new material, like leather.”
While Rimowa makes the majority of its suitcases in factories in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Canada, it has begun working with factories in Italy with expertise in leatherwork in order to make these leather bags. “Even as CEO, I couldn’t tell the craftspeople when we would launch this collection,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. “They didn’t want to launch it until they felt they could create the most durable bags out of leather.” (All of these leather bags come with Rimowa’s lifetime guarantee.)
For the first time, Rimowa can now compete in the world of luxury handbags, including other brands within the LVMH umbrella, like Louis Vuitton. But in some ways, these bags are quite different from others on the market. Many luxury brands design bags for women, but these bags are much more gender-neutral, or even masculine, than others on the market. Bonnet-Masimbert says that when Rimowa launched the Original Bag, he was surprised to find that more men than women bought and carried it. “Men don’t have as many options when it comes to bags,” says Bonnet-Masimbert.
And ultimately, Bonnet-Masimbert doesn’t see Rimowa as a fashion label at heart. It is grounded in performance and engineering, rather than what’s on the runway. “We’re not interested in chasing trends,” he says. “We’ll release new products when we feel like they’re serving a purpose.”