Robb Report: How Luggage Became a Luxury Status Symbol

Your five-star vacation is undeniably luxe, but is your luggage up to snuff?

Couli Jobert seems perfectly content not to encounter too many pieces of Globe-Trotter luggage when she’s at the airport—a curious stance, given that she serves as the English heritage brand’s creative director. But to hear her tell it, the rarity of these painstakingly handmade cases, which start at $1,695 for a carry-on and top out at $5,595 for a large checked bag, is part of their claim to fame. “I think it makes you unique,” she says over Zoom from her office in Paris, noting that hers sport the brand’s distinctive brick-red hue. “When I travel, people stop me and say, ‘Wow, beautiful color…. What is this luggage?’ ”

Increasingly, well-designed, eye-catching carry-ons and checked cases signal more about you than about your destination. Luggage has become a luxury status symbol—even for commercial jet-setters—a style statement on par with limited-edition sneakers and hard-to-get handbags. In place of ubiquitous black-nylon rollers, attention-grabbing suitcases that telegraph wealth and taste are now de rigueur in private hangars and public concourses.

The preponderance of high-end bags on the market tracks with a dramatic shift in how frequently the well-heeled travel. According to recent research from Resonance, a Los Angeles–based consulting firm, nearly one-third of the wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. households took between six and 11 leisure trips in 2025, up from 15 percent in 2022. (Average Americans take fewer than three such journeys annually.) The firm estimates that the top 10 percent of American earners will spend an eye-watering $544 billion on vacations in this year.

Hence the demand for well-made luggage from brands including Louis Vuitton, a perennial favorite, or stylish metal cases from the insider maker Fabbrica Pelletterie Milano, which have now constant companions for U.H.N.W. travelers. Carl Friedrik, another favorite, has made a name for itself on the HBO helipad dramas Succession and Industry. And then, of course, there’s Rimowa, the hyper-popular German maker known for its rolling aluminum trunks—and ironclad lifetime guarantee.

“I mean, in Paris during fashion week, I think I counted 27 Rimowas on one flight,” says Nolan Meader, a New York City–based personal stylist and fashion consultant who flies with one of his own up to 40 times a year. “Now that people are traveling more, they want things that are reliable and convenient, but also, it is a bit of a status thing.”

Of course, the real flex is chartering your own flight—avoiding check-in-desk fatigue, security lines, and concern about overweight luggage altogether. At that level, Meader points to the rarefied travel bags from Hermès, such as the leather-clad R.M.S. Cabin Suitcase or the men’s HAC, an oversize take on the Birkin that has been spotted in the hands of Pharrell Williams, Travis Kelce, Lionel Messi, and David Beckham. “I feel like those are probably more conducive to having a private plane than to, you know, being stuffed in an overhead compartment,” Meader says.

Fabbrica Pelletterie Milano

Fabbrica Pelletterie Milano’s Bank Spinner (from $1,975) uses old-school leather straps to secure your belongings.