![]() ![]() Once an afterthought, Rimowa’s packaging now aspires to be as pleasing as that of an iPhone. It features sharpened vertices like the spires of Cologne’s famous cathedral, intertwined with angular curves that mirror the industrial forms of contemporary Rimowa suitcases.īoth the logo and monogram appear on a redesigned range of packaging. The team also designed a new monogram inspired by Rimowa’s original from 1898. The colour blue has disappeared in favour of neutral shades – black, white and grey. The pill-shaped frame and rounded letters of the previous logo have been replaced with an understated design, with a refined sans serif font that ‘encapsulates the timeless and considered nature of the brand’, says Muelas. ![]() Early this year they unveiled a new visual identity, a collaboration with Munich-based Bureau Borsche and London-based Commission Studio. In June he hired Hector Muelas, formerly of Apple and DKNY, as Rimowa’s chief brand officer. ‘What I’ve learned from growing up in my family and seeing other CEOs is that you have to be involved in the product on every single level,’ he says. He has been actively shepherding the brand ever since, with collaborations, new stores, a pop-up, and no sign of slowing down. LVMH bought Rimowa in January 2017, after two years of negotiation, and Arnault was appointed CEO alongside Dieter Morszeck. The new logo for the brand, set in a thin, clean sans serif font that reflects the functional luxury of its luggage ‘But when they looked at it carefully, they understood the beauty of the product, the craft behind it.’ The family operation has high-profile luggage brands of its own, of course, but when Louis Vuitton started to modernise its suitcase line with lighter and four-wheeled models, Rimowa’s particular set of skills became clear. ‘My family wasn’t too happy when I travelled with it,’ he recalls. He had been using a matte black ‘Salsa’ model since age 17 or 18, when he moved to New York for an internship. Tall, poised and impeccably dressed, fluent in French, English and German, Arnault is the third child of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and it was his idea that the luxury goods conglomerate acquire Rimowa. Rather, it will be a whole year of celebration, of taking a fresh look at the suitcase brand that pioneered aluminium and polycarbonate, and finding ‘a cool way to remind people who we are’. The German company turns 120 this year, but there will be no one special event, says Alexandre Arnault, the new 25-year-old CEO, who finds the idea of a party ‘outdated’. With its immediately recognisable aluminium cases and grooved design, Rimowa is a cult brand, the type that bonds owners in a kind of unspoken club. Such labour-intensive quality has been in Rimowa’s DNA since Paul Morszeck founded it in Cologne in 1898. Until this bag is perfectly balanced, it will not leave the factory. He opens and closes it repeatedly, lays it flat, pounds a hinge with his mallet, stands it on its wheels and starts over again. ![]() A worker intently studies an aluminium suitcase on the assembly line at the Rimowa factory in Cologne. ![]()
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