In 2016, styling power duo Katie Lyall and Charlotte Stockdale—longtime collaborators of Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi—launched the accessories brand CHAOS. A playful, irreverent take on the growing tech accessories market, the brand quickly established a cult following, including the likes of Cara Delevingne, Hailey Bieber, and Victoria Beckham. Fast forward to 2021 and their industry stronghold hasn’t let up—so it’s no surprise that fashion’s preferred purveyors of luxury suitcases, RIMOWA, tapped CHAOS for a capsule collection.
Launched globally this month, RIMOWA x CHAOS features a mix of hard-case rolling luggage (fashioned with playful drips of banana yellow and camo green paint), as well as leather luggage tags, and suitcase stickers. “We look for brands whose purpose, aesthetics, and quality feel synonymous with us at CHAOS, and—in this case—who can make things we cannot but really want,” explains Lyall and Stockdale, who tapped up-and-comer Lila Grace Moss to front the new campaign. Read our interview with the CHAOS founders below, and shop the full selection of the new collection here.
CHAOS has been very selective in terms of brand collaborations, why was RIMOWA the right fit?
We are looking for brands whose purpose, aesthetics and quality feel synonymous with us at CHAOS and—in this case—who make things we cannot, but really want! Pre the pandemic, we travelled regularly across the globe, to cities, resorts and far-flung shoot locations. We took trains, planes, and even boats to get where we were going, often with a LOT of luggage. RIMOWA is our favorite luggage brand because of its quality and look, so this felt a natural fit for us. We would never be able to do a better piece of luggage than them.
As you mentioned, in your roles as stylists you’ve become well adept at gallivanting around the globe. What are the best tips and tricks you’ve learned for smart packing over the years?
For short trips, pack with the hangers still on and hang each item back up as you wear it so packing to go back takes 5 minutes! Pack numerous small items in labelled bags. In the past, we would have said pack a soft holdall for packing spillage, but now we would say buy the harness! We used to tie ribbons on our luggage to differentiate them on the carousel, but now you can choose from all of the collaboration tags, and having a really cool suite of luggage is so satisfying when it makes people’s heads turn in an airport.
The pieces in this collection are really really fun. How did you marry your own style sensibilities with the more pared-back brand DNA of Rimowa?
Both styles have great integrity and a lot of work to refine them to their ultimate state. The combination of RIMOWA and CHAOS may seem like a clash, but in fact, our styles work easily and comfortably together, the beauty being in the contrast.
This partnership seems particularly timely given our newfound respect for travel… Which locations were each of you lusting for during lockdown?
Every time we saw old posts of Thailand and the Maldives or old photos of holidays in Greece together! We normally would stick to hot places, but destinations like Paris and Milan suddenly became almost exotic by being so unreachable!
What has the last year taught you about the importance of travel?
To cherish it! Not to complain, that perhaps we can travel just a little less, and enjoy it more. We are all blessed to be able to reach places far away across the Earth so fast and to also make regular close trips, and although Zoom saved our lives to an extent, nothing is the same as a place or person for real. So when we do travel, we should do it happily and in style! We hope you can find that with this collaboration.
