The people designing at RIMOWA right now have it right. The brand is a bright spot in the world of travel. I think everyone else has lost the plot. Travel hacks, stratified experiences, airport-lounge reviews, and the points system have made traveling a game to be won by guys who read credit-card reviews. It’s antithetical to our vision here at Esquire. We care about beautiful hotels—and not just so we can get points back and post Instagram stories that say, "White Lotus vibes," or whatever. It's because we care about the joy of traveling. A joy that's personal, done for yourself, and based around looking and feeling cool. RIMOWA seems like the only brand on the same wavelength.
Case in point: After an earlier collaboration with Rick Owens that featured a freaky bronze-coloured outer and leather interior, RIMOWA is now dropping its Holiday collection. Three old-school hand-carry travel cases in shiny red, blue, and yellow polycarbonate. Think of these two collections as the beautiful ends of the spectrum of revolting against the dull and over-optimised world of travel in 2025. Some of the Esquire style editors might prefer that moody Rick Owens collection, but for me, these Holiday cases are the perfect pieces of luggage. I want Swinging London technicolor and those mid-century Charles de Gaulle terminals. I want '80s cars the colour of Game Boys with ashtrays and pop-up headlights. These travel cases are simultaneously all of that.
If you can't tell, I'm the target audience here. Not only do I write about this stuff for a living, but I also care too deeply about the way things look, with a penchant for old shit I never experienced the first time around. My fiancée loves Jet Age stewardess uniforms. I love old road-trippy car ads. We've been to two separate museums to see decommissioned Concordes. We appreciate that back then there was a lot of attention paid to the aesthetics of travel, and these suitcases fit right in that wheelhouse.
Especially in that wheelhouse is the vintage-inspired advertising imagery, which calls back to the original 1980s collection that inspired this one, colloquially called "der Reisekoffer für junge Leute," which I'm told translates to something like "travel case for young people." It captures that far-flung and beachy travel I'm talking about, finding somewhere untouched like your own private beach or a corner of the Grand Canyon that hasn't been stepped on a million times.
That said, I commend the RIMOWA designers for not going costumey. Even with nostalgic charm, the collection feels fresh, a rebuttal to bland colours and the travel-hack mindset. It's a primary-colour case you carry with your hand, or a shoulder strap if you must, and the interior organisation is pretty straightforward. It's made to look pretty and function simply. Travel-optimisation nerds might want to skip this one.
Actually, travel-optimisation nerds, why don't you give this collection a shot? You are the ones that could benefit most from cutting loose. Stop trying to win travel. No preflight routine is going to fully get rid of jet lag. No stretchy travel pant or squishy sneaker is going to change your life. Wear a suit and boots to the airport. Get drunk on your flight and smoke a duty-free cigarette in a sad airport smokers cell. Or better yet, take a long road trip whenever feasible. Live well. Enjoy the impracticality of things. Buy one of these beautiful travel cases not because it promises to make your life easier but because it'll make you happy. When that overhead bin drops down or that car trunk pops open, you're going to see that bright-red suitcase and smile. That's more important than any dumb airport lounge.
