Going for Gold

This year marks the golden anniversary for luxury luggage and lifestyle brand, Tumi. Tatler catches up with creative director Victor Sanz to find out what's next

- Coco Marett

In 1975, after a stint in the Peace Corps in Peru, American entrepreneur Charlie Clifford set up a business importing leather bags from South America. He named the brand after the Peruvian tumi, an ornamental knife used in ceremonies.

Fifty years on, Tumi has made a name for itself as a leading brand in luxury travel, thanks in large part to its dedication to innovation and its ongoing commitment to making travel more seamless and stylish for its customers: think polycarbonate shells, the use of recycled materials, 360-degree spinning, ball-bearing wheels and water-repellent zips, to name but a few highlights.

“This milestone celebrates the future while embracing what our customers have loved most about the brand for over 50 years: resilience, effortlessness, functionality and timeless beauty,” says Victor Sanz, who has been Tumi’s creative director since 2003.

To mark this anniversary, Sanz says Tumi, which now has more than 300 stores in major cities and travel hubs worldwide, wanted to honour the collections that have been the cornerstones of the brand—crafted with the intent of perfecting customers’ journeys. “Every detail we've created is the result of five decades of listening to our customers and continuously improving our products,” he says.