New "It" Bag Locks and Rolls

By Kate Betts

Forget about handbags for a moment and look around. Globe-trotting professionals with heavy laptops in tow are turning to upright rollers to transport their gear. The increasing popularity of those mobile offices has brought high fashion to what used to be a purely functional accessory. Suddenly every brand from Prada to Valentino is rolling luggage down the runway.

"There's been a huge surge in the business for roller luggage in the last two years," says Peter Cobb, a vice president and co-founder of eBags.com an online luggage purveyor that averages 170,000 hits a day. "They used to be only for business trips, but now people are using them as briefcases every day, and they're buying them like fashion items, every six months."

Luggage companies such as Tumi and Samsonite are responding to the new demand with flair. They're using innovation and color to turn formerly utilitarian pieces into style statements. Tumi's new Ducati line features eight different travel bags with racy black-and-red styling. Samsonite Black Label hired trendy industrial designer Marc Newson to create a lightweight, colorful line of luggage called Scope. He used EVA foam--once found only in sneakers--to create one of the lightest uprights on the market.

"These carry-on pieces are being treated more like an accessory," says Lynne Berard, vice president of marketing at Samsonite. "People don't want just your basic black anymore. They want color. They want to make a statement." So Samsonite is selling its Newson line in luxury boutiques like Conran's and at W Hotels, as opposed to typical luggage specialty stores.

Some companies are trying to hide the functionality of luggage altogether. Valextra, the Italian high-end leather-goods brand, recently came out with the Avietta, a sleek leather briefcase sporting a hidden handle and silent synthetic wheels that took three years to develop. "I wanted to give the businessman something that could jump from the airplane right into a board meeting," says Massimo Suppancig, CEO of Valextra.

Perhaps the most innovative new idea in luggage is one that addresses the weight issue. Last month Ricardo Beverly Hills introduced an upright roller with a built-in scale. "Anyone who's been through that embarrassing moment at the check-in counter when you're over the weight limit and you have to unpack in front of everyone will appreciate this product," says Cobb. Just lift the model off the floor, and a small screen under the handle will tell you whether you have overpacked.

Your Initials, Please The easiest way to identify luggage on the claim carousel is still old-fashioned initials. The idea of customizing travel gear started in France in 1854, when Louis Vuitton, a purveyor of steamer trunks, began hand-painting initials on its goods. Gaston-Louis, a grandson of Vuitton's founder, was obsessed with the trend of customization, particularly the use of stickers as a way of identifying a trunk's journey around the world. Today Louis Vuitton still offers personalization services--including hand-painting initials, stripes and crests in a choice of 15 colors.