Luggage, in the lexicon of luxury, has always hinted at what comes next. Crafting a suitcase is rarely an end in itself; it is the prelude to leather goods. It becomes bags that orbit cities, cafes, and airports like rare NFTs — status symbols you carry IRL. Rimowa, the German house synonymous with aluminium and obsessive craftsmanship, has long been a talisman for the frequent flyer and the fashion literati alike. So its pivot to leather bags should feel less like a shock and more like inevitability.
Enter the Groove collection. Rimowa translates the architectural rigour of its iconic suitcases into Italian leather: oversized grooves, horizontal and vertical, reduced in spacing, with all the severity of a Bauhaus grid softened by supple, resilient hides. The collection consists of four forms: the Rimowa groove shopping bag, the Rimowa groove sliding hobo bag, and the Rimowa groove cross-body bag in both large and small.
The shopping bag offers adaptability between hand and shoulder; the hobo is relaxed but exacting, with a detachable pouch and interior pockets; the cross-body compresses the signature aluminium aesthetic into a wearable object, punctuated by palladium hardware. Each bag carries the Maison’s logo in relief and an interior plaque with rivets — a quiet manifesto of its world-renowned craftsmanship.
And it’s clear that Rimowa’s cultural relevance remains intact. You see it on the go, on your favourite celebrities and influencers. You’ve even found ourself asking these questions: aluminium or classic-lite? Sticker or not to sticker? And yet, beneath the banter lies a deeper truth: you can’t call yourself a somebody if you don’t own a Rimowa. Its 125-year history, memorialised in the “Seit 1898” exhibitions that traveled the world may have celebrated its history and iconoclast status, but it’s evolution from there, where the Groove lands, may be its insistence that Rimowa is no longer just luggage. In fact, it is a daily companion, a codified gesture of taste, mobility; both culturally and in literacy.
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