RIMOWA UNIQUE NOW CUSTOMISES THE ORIGINAL SUITCASE

Rimowa's Unique customisation service now covers the Original suitcase for the first time, so owners can pick coloured handles, wheels and luggage tags for the grooved aluminium case. Since it launched in 2019, Unique had been limited to the Classic line, the heritage case with leather handles and vintage style clasps. The Original now joins a service whose palette has grown since the 2019 launch.

Three Parts Change and the Aluminium Shell Stays

Rimowa Unique lets an Original owner swap three parts: the handles, the wheels and the luggage tag. All three come in colours, and the brand describes the result as combining timeless aluminium design with character. None of the three options touches the aluminium shell itself.

The handles carry the most weight. Rimowa's own customisation FAQ says handles cannot be bought separately online because they need professional installation by Rimowa experts, so a handle change always runs through a store specialist. The service is offered at select stores and online, and some country sites say to use the online configurator or visit a store.

The palette has a history. The 2019 launch ran from Paprika to Ocean Blue, and in October 2020 Hypebae reported that Raspberry and Cactus had been added to the original shades.

November 2019: Seven Colours and a Classic Only Rule

Wallpaper reported the first version of Unique on 6 November 2019. It let buyers personalise the Classic aluminium suitcase with soft Nappa leather handle sets, a leather luggage tag and a set of four wheels in seven colours.

A Marie Claire review from that launch said customers could have the work done on the spot in a store and wheel the finished case away. The Original extension keeps that structure: three parts, one aluminium body.

Classic was the first home for the service, and it is the line that carries vintage style leather handles and clasps. Rimowa's luggage guide now lists the Original and the Classic together under the same promise to personalise with your choice of tag, coloured wheels and handles.

Grooves From 1950 Left Colour Only the Hardware to Carry

Rimowa's heritage pages say the grooves were added to the aluminium shell in 1950, and the brand calls them its hallmark. Retail accounts tie them to the corrugated fuselage of the Junkers F13, an early all metal aircraft. The name itself comes from Richard Morszeck, whose initials and the German word for trademark give RIchard MOrszeck WArenzeichen.

A shell that has kept one profile and one metal for more than seventy years has very little room for personal expression. That leaves the handle, the wheel and the tag as the places where an owner can say something. Unique treats precisely those three parts as the canvas.

Rimowa Has Sold Personal Before, Twice and Loudly

Unique is the quiet version of a theme the brand has run in public. The Off White transparent carry on, announced June 5, 2018 and sold in Europe from June 25, let each traveller's belongings become the design. Black and white versions followed at HYPEFEST on October 6 and 7, 2018. That was personalisation through the contents of the case; Unique does it through colour on the outside.

The other public version came from outside the building. In June 2026 Olaolu Slawn built a grooved aluminium suitcase called the SLIMOWA, a run of 100 units in three sizes sold through a waitlist, which tested how far parody can lean on Rimowa's trademarked shell. Rimowa also ran the 2026 Rimowa Design Prize, which picked a sign language bracelet.

Rimowa has also run a Crafted for You personalisation programme out of its Cologne flagship, available only in that store's mezzanine atelier. Unique, by contrast, is offered at select stores and online, and it now includes the Original.

The group behind it keeps building around aluminium. Rimowa sits inside LVMH, where Louis Vuitton's Horizon Aluminium works aluminium with a different construction, and Alexandre Arnault, who took the Rimowa chief executive role in 2016, has since moved on to a seat on the Nike board.

Where the Original Owner Starts

An Original owner who wants colour now has a defined path: choose handles, wheels and a tag, and have the handles fitted by a Rimowa specialist. Coverage of the extension says existing Original suitcases are covered as well as new ones, and the online configurator and stores are the two routes in.

Three components, a palette that has grown since 2019, and a service that began on the Classic in November 2019 and now reaches the Original.