As a city dweller, there’s always a yen for Elsewhere. A place where you’re not surrounded by unfeeling glass and cold steel. That’s why we travel. It’s essential. A flower breaking from the earth to be embraced by sun rays.
Like a compass needle, an invisible draw pulls it toward True North. And, when the needle points, you follow, and eventually you arrive at the opening of TUMI’s new store at the Paragon.
The store is filled with guests. Drinks in hands, their brows knitted in rapt curiosity as they hover about the carriers, specifically TUMI's FW26 collection. The second thing that strikes you are the warm and inviting colours of the store. There's an earthiness to the place, like the soft glow of a morning. Momentarily, you are pleasantly caught off-guard by a hue that reads almost black until it catches the fluorescent glow, and green surfaces like a rising forest. This is a palette of the altitude: the thinning hour, just before the sun clears a ridge.
The 19 Degree’s Deep Pine and Salt hard shell cases look hewn from the same forest and mountains. Made of polycarbonate, each item is an exercise in functionality and movement; you'll even discover a new front-access entry, which makes grabbing for an item from your carrier easier than just popping the bag open. You’ll find the colourways on across select front access, carry-on, checked and trunk silhouettes.
We have raved about the Alpha collection, about how the range brought versatility to how they are used. This next generation of the Alpha brings another colour pop to its shapes. A familiar motif is reimagined as Forest Camouflage to reflect the mountain range. Once more, Deep Pine, Forest Camo, and Grey Reflective colourways are splashed across key models like the Dual Access Expandable Carry-On, Medium Cross body, and the TUMI Brief Pack.
Reach for the Harrison range. Feel that? It’s soft. Real nice to the touch. A few additions with new materials and colourways are added to this minimalist collection. The Marci Small Crossbody and Thatcher Sling Backpack are the latest models that provide more options into how to carry. Cognac Bombe is a new permanent pigment that bespeaks of age and urbanity. Almost anomalous in this mountain-setting of a store, this shade is the bark found in the expanse of white; a stubborn trunk of life. Let’s not forget the clean architectural lines, which level up the sophistication of the range.
Like mountaineering gear, TUMI’s collections look like luxury, but behaves like bags that you’d want to use. With TUMI’s FW26 collection, it’d make the trek to the Alps that much easier, and stylish.
There’s a story with mountaineer George Mallory, when he was quizzed by a newspaper on why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. “Because it’s there,” he quipped. And the mountains await, the world beckons, and for now you are here at an opening, where the carriers look ripe for the buying. Your move.
TUMI’s new store is located at The Paragon, 290 Orchard Road, #02-47A, Singapore 238859. TUMI’s FW26 collection is now out.
