Rimowa’s Virgil Abloh transparent luggage targets millennial travellers
Striking case collaboration with Louis Vuitton’s menswear artistic director sits well with revamped brand’s place as ‘catnip for young, streetwear fanatics’
“Transparency” has been a go-to buzzword in the business and technology industries over the past few years, but German luggage maker Rimowa has taken the concept to the extreme.
Its new collaboration with Virgil Abloh, artistic director of menswear for Louis Vuitton and designer of the cult streetwear label Off-White, has rendered the brand’s iconic carry-on style in clear polycarbonate for a completely see-through piece of luggage. Pack accordingly.
Abloh, known as a close collaborator of American rapper Kanye West, became menswear chief for the French luxury label, owned by luxury conglomerate LMVH, in March.
He has worked closely with Rimowa, the 120-year-old German brand in which LMVH holds an 80 per cent stake, on a product that would reflect both its dedication to quality craftsmanship and his own postmodern, internet-influenced sensibility – one that has made him and his work deeply popular with the Instagram generation of tastemakers.
The Rimowa x Off-White Cabin Multiwheel (€850, or US$994) collaboration is being released in tandem with a series of design updates to honour the German luggage brand’s 120th anniversary.
Touted as the “most significant evolution of the brand’s designs since the 1950s”, the changes are quite subtle: new, lighter materials; understated-to-the-point-of-unnoticeable ergonomic design tweaks; new wheel designs to maximise mobility; and some practical storage features for frequent travellers.
A newly conceived product line of four “collections” updates the brand’s core line-up with a refreshed visual identity and new size runs: four cabin sizes, two check-in sizes, and two larger trunk sizes per collection.