Luggage as a symbol of luxury:
why we’ve become more particular about what we travel with
Twenty years ago, a suitcase was simply a suitcase. Sturdy, spacious, practical — and all the better if it had wheels. But times have changed, and today even the choice of luggage calls for a different kind of attention — because travel itself is no longer merely a matter of getting from A to B, especially now, when getting anywhere has become so much harder to arrange. Every journey is an experience, an adventure, a quiet celebration. And celebrations deserve preparation that goes well beyond the purely functional. As it turns out, practicality and beauty are not mutually exclusive — and the best luggage has always understood this.
The appetite for premium luggage is nothing new. As far back as 1854, Louis Vuitton understood that people of means were just as willing to pay for elegance on the road as for elegance at home. The trunks of that era were loaded onto trains and steamships; today their heirs — ribbed aluminium cases, immaculate and unhurried — are wheeled, not without a certain quiet pride, through the glass corridors of the modern airport.
To this has been added another dimension entirely. Millions of devoted followers track their idols’ every public appearance, and Hollywood press tours have long since become extensions of the film set itself. When Lily Collins rolls a teal suitcase through Paris, or Margot Robbie steps into the Cannes light with a mint-green case that completes her look to the last detail — none of it is accidental. It is the considered work of an entire team, in which the airport terminal becomes the opening act of a campaign, and the suitcase a fully-fledged supporting character. Sofia Coppola, Lewis Hamilton, and above all that reigning authority on airport chic, Victoria Beckham, have long made luggage an integral part of their personal style. Which rather invites the question: why not bring a little more intention to one’s own?
The fascination with “luggage dressing” has been further deepened by collaborations that elevate the suitcase to the status of collectible. Since Rimowa joined the LVMH group in 2017, the German house — with its century of heritage and its signature grooved aluminium — has released capsule collections with Supreme, Fendi, and a constellation of names that together read like a taxonomy of desire.
The collaboration with Porsche produced a bespoke piece engineered precisely for the front boot of the 911 — limited to 911 units, every one of which sold out within days. The Tiffany partnership brought aluminium finished like a faceted diamond, the house’s signature blue its only ornament. The Dior capsule carried the 1967 Oblique print engraved directly onto metal — and introduced a limited-edition champagne case in grey crocodile leather, designed to hold a single bottle of Dom Pérignon alongside six Dior Maison crystal flutes. An argument, quietly and irresistibly made, for the irreducible value of things conceived with care.
These houses offer us inspiration; what we make of it is our own affair. But if travel has become the new luxury, then luggage ought to rise to the occasion. A suitcase says something about its owner — and it is worth ensuring that what it says is precisely the story you wish to tell.