RIMOWA X LEHNI:REWRITES SUITCASE STORAGE

## 1898 Cologne. 1922 Zurich. 2026 Milan. The suitcase was never supposed to stay home. That was always the point: it leaves, it returns, it gets shoved in a closet or rolled under a bed or stacked in a hallway with quiet embarrassment. For 128 years, nobody built a piece of furniture specifically for the problem. Until April 21, 2026. RIMOWA and Lehni's new limited-edition furniture collection consists of two aluminium pieces purpose-built to house RIMOWA luggage. The Bench. The Drawer. Two objects with a combined pedigree of over two centuries, priced at €3,200 each, and presented at Salone del Mobile in Milan. This is not a brand extension. This is two precision-manufacturing cultures finally occupying the same room. ## Donald Judd Worked Here. Now Your Suitcase Does Too. In 1922, Rudolf Lehni senior opened a sheet metal workshop not far from the Kunsthaus Zurich. That proximity to the Kunsthaus was not accidental. Lehni cultivated contacts with the artistic avant-garde, and his workshop became a meeting point for many artists, with Lehni soon becoming the artist's collaborator, bringing expertise in metalwork to the creative vision of the artist. One of the first standout partnerships was with the internationally renowned artist Max Bill, who commissioned Lehni to make his famous 'well-relief' in 1932. Then came Andreas Christen, whose aluminium shelf, developed for the Swiss National Exhibition Expo 64 in Lausanne, became the piece that defined Swiss design minimalism for the next six decades. Then Donald Judd. Donald Judd was introduced to Lehni via their mutual friends Annemarie and Gianfranco Verna, and he would set up a workplace at the Lehni factory for several weeks, working in close cooperation with metalwork specialists and craftsmen. Judd and Lehni created furniture comprising 15 designs made of powder-coated aluminium, originally available in 15 colours, now available in 21 colours, clear anodized aluminium, copper and brass. That is the lineage RIMOWA is stepping into. Not a fashion collaboration. An art-manufacturing institution. Today, Antonio Monaci and Benedetta Agostini are the fourth-generation owners who run Lehni together with a team of 12 employees at the company headquarters and manufacturing facility in Dübendorf. Twelve people. Every piece handmade. No corners cut on the bolt visibility either: in true Lehni style, the furniture does not hide bolts and other technical components, but rather highlights them, showcasing extremely precise cuts and folds at the joints. ## RIMOWA's Collaboration Strategy Since 2017 Has Been Building to This RIMOWA was founded in 1898 in Cologne, Germany. The world's first all-metal plane, the Junkers F13, inspired RIMOWA's iconic grooved aluminium suitcase in 1950. That single design decision, grooved aluminium borrowed from aviation engineering, became the brand's most durable asset. In October 2016, LVMH purchased an 80% stake in RIMOWA, which became the group's first German company. LVMH acquired that stake for 640 million euros. What followed was a systematic repositioning: since 2017, RIMOWA has made major changes in its strategy, moving from a product placement strategy to a strategy of close collaborations and long-term partnerships such as Fendi, Monocle, Moncler, Supreme, Off-White, Daniel Arsham, Anti Social Social Club, and the artist Alex Israel. Supreme in 2018. Dior in 2019. LeBron James, Rihanna, and Roger Federer in the 'Never Still' campaign. Each move pushed RIMOWA further from luggage brand and closer to cultural object. The Lehni collaboration is where that trajectory finally reaches furniture. RIMOWA has been on a quiet but consistent streak of repositioning itself as something more than a travel brand. The aluminium suitcase has already crossed over into fashion and streetwear culture through collaborations with names like Dior, Supreme, and Porsche. The Lehni drop is the first time that repositioning has pointed inward, toward the home. ## €3,200, Anodized Black or Silver, Felt-Lined, Handmade in Dübendorf The RIMOWA Lehni Bench is an open-shelving unit that holds up to two suitcases side by side, and the RIMOWA Lehni Drawer is a sculptural stacked-storage frame with a closed drawer for smaller objects. Both pieces are available in anodized aluminium in black or silver. Each shelf on the Bench is lined with a specially developed scratch-resistant felt mat to protect the cases stored on it. That detail matters more than it sounds. RIMOWA aluminium cases retail from approximately $1,525 USD. You are not putting a $1,525 case on an untreated surface. The felt is not decoration. It is engineering thinking applied to cohabitation. Lehni owners Benedetta Agostini and Antonio Monaci called the result 'technology and beauty applied to aluminium', adding that it represents 'a design product made entirely in Switzerland to the highest aesthetic and quality standards.' And RIMOWA's CMO Mathieu Plenier framed it as shared roots: "Together with Lehni, we have created bespoke pieces that merge our Swiss and German design roots, while celebrating our shared dedication to aluminium craftsmanship." The RIMOWA Lehni Bench and RIMOWA Lehni Drawer are each priced at €3,200 and will be available from 21 April on RIMOWA.com and in select flagship stores globally. Here is the honest counterargument worth sitting with: €3,200 for a furniture piece that serves exactly one object type is a commitment that requires owning not just the suitcase but an entire aesthetic worldview. This is furniture for people who do not think of their RIMOWA as luggage. It is furniture for people who think of it as sculpture. ## Via Achille Maiocchi 10, April 21 to 24. Then the World. The collection will be presented at Milan Design Week at the RIMOWA Lehni Visitor Centre on Via Achille Maiocchi 10, open 21 to 24 April 2026, alongside a curated selection of titles chosen by Swiss publisher Innen Publishing and a postcard-mailing station where visitors can send handwritten notes from Milan. One corner will be dedicated to sending postcards, a nostalgic gesture that evokes the more personal and emotional side of travel, long central to RIMOWA's imagery. That detail is almost too on-brand to be accidental. RIMOWA has always sold movement. Now it is selling stillness. The postcard station is the pivot point between the two. A special window installation by local practice Studioutte will also feature at RIMOWA's newly renovated Milan flagship. Industrialkonzept, the curated design platform that has carried Lehni's aluminium shelf system and the Elox Chair to a global audience, positions Lehni as one of Switzerland's most culturally significant design manufacturers, founded in 1922 near the Kunsthaus Zürich as a metal workshop that developed from a small artisanal practice. The RIMOWA collaboration is the most commercially visible chapter in that 104-year story. Twelve employees in Dübendorf. One limited drop. Every major design publication in the world paying attention. The real question is what comes next. RIMOWA has now made a piece of furniture. Lehni has now made a dedicated suitcase-storage system, the first time it has adapted its modular system for that specific function. The logical extension is a full home system: shelving, storage, travel infrastructure, all in the same anodized language. If that happens, April 2026 in Milan will look less like a product launch and more like the first room of a much larger house.