WHITE OUT: It’s probably safe to say this is the first time Maison Margiela‘s four white stitches have been threaded through aluminum.
Rimowa has collaborated with the Paris-based fashion house on a limited-edition cabin suitcase and a roomy leather handbag with a grooved surface. The items, priced at 3,200 euros and 3,600 euros, respectively, drop on Nov. 19 at select Rimowa and Maison Margiela boutiques as well as the two brands’ online stores.
The most glaring feature of the collaboration is Bianchetto, Maison Margiela’s signature overpainting technique, born in 1988 when the founding Belgian designer, Martin Margiela, painted all the furniture in his Paris design studio white, partly to disguise their humble origins and ragtag appearance.
According to the partners, all the Rimowa x Maison Margiela cases and bags are hand-painted, “rendering them as unique records of lived experience, transforming with time.”
That’s because the paint will gradually flake and crackle over time, giving the cases more character just as dents, scratches and patina shifts on aluminum cases “become personal records of meaningful journeys.”
The interior of the Rimowa x Maison Margiela cabin suitcase.
Dexter Lander/Courtesy of Rimowa
Rimowa’s Classic Cabin suitcase has been further decked out with an all-white lining, echoing the lab coats worn by Maison Margiela staffers and its process of “creating garments from internal linings” or assembling them in ways that reveal their fabrication.
With its visible stitching and overlocked edges, the suitcase lining appears inside-out, which happens to mirror how the leather bag, dubbed the 5AC XL, is constructed: Its internal lining extends beyond the leather exterior.
The bag boasts removable leather loops that can anchor it to the cabin suitcase’s telescopic handle and align the grooves. Both travel bags come with a double luggage tag: one in Rimowa’s address-label format; the other in Maison Margiela’s key bell format.
For the campaign, photographer Dexter Lander captures the travel companions amid a Haussmannian apartment that appears to have been completely splattered with paint, leaving an outline of the bag on the upholstered sofa and one of a suitcase on the wallpaper.
The 5AC XL bag.
Dexter Lander/Courtesy of Rimowa
Owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton since 2017, Rimowa has racked up collaborations with the likes of Supreme, Dior, Tiffany & Co., Off-White, Daniel Arsham, Moncler and Fendi.
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