Margiela Made a Rimowa That Changes With Every Trip
So, it’s not Tabi luggage. But Maison Margiela's first collaboration with RIMOWA does riff on another of the brand's most beloved quirks: painting over perfectly good things with white paint. It's a technique called Bianchetto, which has appeared on everything from Tabi boots to handbags and most famously on the brand’s signature German Army Trainers (fondly known by the heads at GATs). And now RIMOWA introduces its aluminum suitcases into the fold, designed to patinate (and probably flake?) all the same.
Maison Margiela’s RIMOWA partnership consists of just two pieces, each a perfect representation of Margiela doing RIMOWA, and RIMOWA doing Margiela. Both Margiela’s 5AC XL and RIMOWA’s Cabin suitcase are blasted with white paint (the campaign film shows as much), and informed by each other’s design language. The 5AC wears RIMOWA's ridge detailing on its leather, while the Cabin gets a four-stitch logo.
Margiela and RIMOWA meet on common ground regarding an obsessive attention to detail, though they both approach it from different vantages; Margiela deconstructs things, RIMOWA is all about the impeccable construction of one thing, a good piece of luggage.
If there’s one takeaway from this collab – apart from the fact that I wish I had $10k to make it happen for myself – it’s that RIMOWA is more conceptually “Margiela” than people think. As in, RIMOWA luggage is designed to be pristine, sure, but the way the aluminum wears and tears after years of travelling reminds me of the desired effect of Bianchetto.
Your scars make you beautiful, or whatever that one song says, whether it be your RIMOWA suitcase or your painted GATs. Or, now, your RIMOWA suitcase, which can get dinged up and sport that Margiela deteriorated paint look.
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