The era of logo mania luggage might just be over

Telegraph

10-05-2025

When luxury brand manager Carla Filmer pulled into London's St Pancras station on a delayed Eurostar from Paris, she decided to forgo the Tube and order an Uber in a bid to make up lost time. Instead, she almost ended up with lost luggage.
As she got into the back seat of the Uber, two men appeared from nowhere, swiped her suitcase out of the boot and ran off with it – an audacious theft, yes, but one which hadn't banked on the tenacity of Filmer, who promptly gave chase. 'I screamed at the top of my voice for someone to stop them,' she says. 'My case was heavy, and I outran them. I threw myself on top of one of the guys, the case fell out of his hand and I grabbed it back.'
That the case was by Louis Vuitton likely hadn't escaped the notice of the thieves. 'Had it been by another brand, they probably wouldn't have tried that hard to steal it,' Filmer admits. 'And if I'm really honest, had it been an Eastpak, would I have chased them so hard? Probably not.'
Given a cabin-size case currently retails at £2,570, a piece of monogrammed Louis Vuitton luggage marks out its owner as someone likely to have more swag in their bag than the average traveller. That's the point of status luggage: it acts as a bold visual semaphore that you have arrived – if not at your final destination, then certainly at some degree of success. What happened to Filmer has terrifying echoes of a recent incident reported by F1 driver Jenson Button and his wife Brittny Button, who had £250,000 worth of jewellery and handbags stolen after her suitcase was taken in similar circumstances at the Eurostar in February, when crooks grabbed her bag as the luggage was being loaded into the awaiting car.
It's also why an increasing number of travellers are turning their backs on status luggage in favour of more discreet options that deliberately fly under the radar. Gone is that ostentatious 'Joan Collins' approach to travel whereby your trolley is piled high. Instead, they've been replaced by an army of anonymous cases with soft-glide wheels and hard polycarbonate shells, most of which look so freakishly alike on the baggage carousel that it can be a challenge not to walk off with someone else's luggage.
But that's a small price to pay for some added peace of mind. As the current spate of luxury watch thefts demonstrates, thieves are highly sophisticated in their targeting of items that have considerable resale worth. Brands such as Rimowa (sleek, aluminium, owned by LVMH) and Globe-Trotter (whose luggage is inspired by the golden age of steam travel) are sitting targets. 'I love my Globe-Trotter far too much to risk using it for travel,' says Courtney, 47, who bought her 'Safari' carry-on twelve years ago (it currently retails for £1,795). 'The last time I checked it in on a flight, it emerged covered in black scuff marks, though admittedly I shouldn't have bought it in such a dirt-magnet as cream.'
With smartphone and watch theft steeply on the rise, it stands to reason that luggage theft is also rising. After witnessing her giving chase to her suitcase, a cab driver stopped Filmer to tell her that he'd seen the same thing happen to five other people already that week – and that was only at St Pancras.
Travelling by train from the bi-annual fashion event Pitti Uomo in Florence to Milan, meanwhile, some fashion editors routinely hear tales of knowing thieves who board with the sole purpose of stealing expensive bags during the particular route and timings in which the fashion press have loaded their wares. 'Horror stories abound – perhaps based on reality, perhaps partly myth – about gangs leaping onto the carriages and plundering the luggage compartments in a frenzy, focusing on whatever looks the shiniest, knowing that hundreds of fashion professionals are migrating all at once,' says one editor. 'I tend to stick to anonymous black cases with a deliberately raggedy string attached; the sort that any American tourist seeing the sights of Italy might use, rather than someone with a wealth of Prada and Saint Laurent within.'
Those thinking of swapping status for security certainly won't be lacking in choice. With a record-breaking five billion people expected to travel via aeroplane in 2025, according to the International Air Transport Association, it's unsurprising that a glut of new luggage brands has risen up to meet demand, including the Australian brand Nere (launched in the UK in 2023) and the Anglo-American Harper Collective, launched in 2023 by Selfridges' merchandising director, Sebastian Manes, and Jaden Smith, the musician son of actors Will and Jada Smith.
They're brave to launch into an overcrowded market of mid-priced cases that already includes Horizn Studios (launched in 2015), Away (2016), Paraval (2016), Roam (2017), Monos (2018), Beis (2018), July (2019) and Floyd (2019). All offer varying degrees of 'smartcase' features such as integrated chargers, and many boast of utilising recycled materials. Little wonder the British heritage brand Antler (est 1914) rebranded in 2023, streamlining its cases and offering a lifetime warranty instead of its previous 10 year one.
These luggage brands are typically priced between £120 and £360 for a carry-on – exponentially more affordable than a Rimowa. But if you really don't want to get your suitcase stolen? Go for a Tripp, the UK-founded brand whose carry-on cases start at a truly affordable £55. In a rainbow of colours (yellow and fuchsia seem particularly popular), they may not be the pinnacle of chic, but these days, that's a bonus. Covetable luggage is all very well, until it's coveted by the wrong people.
Sleek, but discreet luggage to try