LONDON — Alexander McQueen wasn’t going to let the functional dictates of designing a luggage collection get in the way of his out-of-left-field approach to fashion.
For his first collaboration with Samsonite, he molded one of the suitcases he created, the AI1, around the cast of a human rib cage. He also dragged a stuffed crocodile into his first meeting with the brand’s executives so they could re-create the animal’s armor in leather for the AI2 suitcase.
“The rib cage holds everything inside your body — the heart, lungs and soul — while your bag also holds everything that’s important to you,” said McQueen during a lunch here on Tuesday to unveil the collection. A similar event will be held in New York on Tuesday.
“It’s just the way I work, having that twist,” added McQueen. “There’s also a slightly sick side to it — it’s like having a body in a bag.”
In another nod to the human form, the zippers on the luggage collection, in ivory and black, are embossed with an imprint of McQueen’s thumb.
The 11-piece collection, called Samsonite Black Label Alexander McQueen, will be launched in February at all 30 Samsonite Black Label stores worldwide, as well as at Alexander McQueen boutiques and department stores such as Selfridges in London, Neiman Marcus in the U.S. and Isetan in Japan. The line will also retail on the Samsonite Black Label e-commerce site. Although all prices are not final, Marcello Bottoli, president and chief executive officer of the Samsonite Group, said the luggage would retail from about $320 to about $770 for an AI1 or A12 suitcase.
“I didn’t really see any restrictions [designing the collection],” said McQueen about his relationship with Samsonite. “I want the world and it’s up to them to give it to me.”
To produce McQueen’s designs, Samsonite created custom molds to achieve the patterns on the suitcases, made from ABS, a hard-wearing plastic.
“The haute couture side comes from Samsonite,” said McQueen. “The crocodile design was my concept, but then Samsonite took it into the atelier and made it.”
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The collection includes a beauty case made from leather panels and nylon in a stiff curved shape, a men’s leather and canvas boarding bag, a garment bag and a leather passport holder and wallet, in the crocodile print design.
And although the designer didn’t take a mold of his own rib cage, as he did of his foot in his collaboration on a sneaker line with Puma last year, he said the collection was infused with his aesthetic.
“If I was going to do something, I wanted to bring all the elements together,” said McQueen, citing his signature partridge feather print that lines the suitcases, as well as the egg-like shape on the Samsonite luggage bags that mimics that of McQueen’s Kingdom fragrance bottle.
“I was intrigued and very shocked by some of the pieces at the beginning, but I would do it all over again,” said Bottoli. “We imagine it will appeal to a relatively young, trendy world traveler who isn’t afraid of breaking the mold.”
McQueen’s collection will add to Black Label lines from Marc Newson and the Graviton and Fashionaire collection by Samsonite’s creative director, Quentin Mackay.
While Bottoli declined to give sales projections for the line, he said the collaboration with McQueen would pay dividends in helping Samsonite reach a new demographic.
“This is art rather than pure business,” said Bottoli. “We’re not doing this collaboration just for commercial success. It helps to transform the brand.”
McQueen collaborated with photographer Sam Taylor-Wood on the campaign images, which feature McQueen looking out from the sea at his own home on the English coast, while the AI1 case stands on the shore. The ads hit in February.
“I’m quite a melancholy person, so I wanted to create a sense of abandonment, of wanting to be somewhere else,” said McQueen.
Bottoli said there is no time limit on the collaboration.
“We want to see how things go,” said Bottoli, “but both Lee [McQueen] and I agree that what’s nice about a short period of time is that it creates all this buzz.”