Rimowa (LVMH) will launch a leather suitcase. Founded in 1898 as a saddlery shop, the brand shifted to manufacturing suitcases later on. They were made with leather until the 1930s, when it introduced aluminum. Material that, throughout the decades, became a brand staple. On Thursday, November 2nd, Rimowa looks back to the past and will launch a leather-covered suitcase named Distinct (priced at 2,900 euro). A choice that marks a significant change in direction within the brand’s collections, after it joined LVMH in 2016. CEO Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert, who took over Alexandre Arnault in 2021, explains the reasons behind this choice.
Rimowa will launch a leather suitcase
“There is a large application field for leather in the luxury industry. This hasn’t been a traditional play area for Rimowa”, said to Financial Times Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert. “It’s not about the fact that clients are demanding a leather suitcase, but more about the capabilities to surprise, elevate and create emotion that the material gifts”. There is another factor to highlight: “The addition of leather to Rimowa’s product lines opens new doors in terms of future creative work”.
Lifetime warranty
Work that requires manufacturing knowhow, given that the new leather suitcase will have lifetime warranty. This means the product will be created, be repaired and its quality will need to be extremely high, starting with the materials.
The manufacturing challenges of the leather industry
“It’s been around 100 years since Rimowa stopped producing with leather – explained Bonnet-Masimbert – and the path towards the new suitcase was important and challenging”. Why? “Because there is a lot of work tied to the stitching, which is a new know-how for artisans. There is innovation in the technique we have used for the leather”, said the CEO. That’s because the launch of Distinct has required many years of planning: to allow the artisans in the Cologne plant to learn the competencies to make it. They are now equipped.
Images from rimowa.com
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