Rimowa and Mykita launch MR007 and MR008 sunglasses in aluminum and steel

Rimowa and Mykita dropped their first two sunglasses together on 15 October, the round MR007 and the wraparound MR008. Both German brands describe the collaboration as the start of an open-ended design partnership, not a run of seasonal releases tied to a single campaign.

Mykita creative director Moritz Krueger explains the fit in shared engineering, not shared marketing. Both companies run their own manufacturing and their own materials programs, he says, and the pairing draws on that collective knowledge rather than on a logo placed across a frame.

The luggage brand brings the grooved aluminum suitcase, first made in Cologne in 1898 and majority-owned by LVMH since 2017. Mykita, a Berlin eyewear house, contributes its light stainless steel. Krueger frames the collaboration around restraint rather than embellishment.

What the MR007 and MR008 are

The MR007 is a perfectly round lens, the shape Krueger calls one of the most recognizable archetypes in eyewear. Its frame pairs Mykita's lightweight stainless steel with rings of Rimowa's anodized aluminum, so the luggage metal shows up as a thin edge around each lens.

The MR008 takes the opposite route. It refines the wraparound shield visor Mykita already makes, closing the face in a single sweep. Krueger reads the pair as two modes of working: the first a nod to eyewear history, the second what he calls decidedly futuristic.

Neither frame was priced in the announcement, and Rimowa has not said how many pieces it will produce. What the maison did release, on the morning of 15 October, was the design language: the two styles are the flagships of two families, Heritage and Visor.

Heritage gathers pieces meant to become instant classics, the category the MR007 leads. Visor is the experimental lane, driven by lightweight construction and new technical approaches to building eyewear. The MR008 heads that one, and the split is how the partnership plans to move.

Krueger describes the structure as built to shift independently with the demands of the design world, two houses pooling infrastructure and engineering. For Rimowa, it extends a name sold on hardware into a product worn on the face.

Krueger says neither brand relies on decoration to make a statement, and that the character comes from the design itself. Both houses, he adds, bring a deep understanding of materials, which is why the first drop leans on metal rather than on prints or colors.

Where it lands in our coverage

We have covered Rimowa as a luggage maker for years. In our ranking of fifteen luxury luggage brands we picked it as the choice at the high end, while Horizn Studios topped the list overall and American Tourister won the budget spot.

Aluminum is the reason Rimowa reads as expensive. In that same guide we noted it costs more than the default polycarbonate, which deforms on impact and springs back, and more than ABS, which is lighter than both but the least durable.

We have also looked at Rimowa's softer side. Our look at the Never Still collection covered its move beyond the aluminum case, and our guides to the best backpacks for women and the best travel backpacks both name Rimowa among the makes we review.

Eyewear is where our coverage widens. We have mapped the types of sunglasses by shape, ranked the most expensive pairs in the world and the ones worth buying, and reviewed Randolph frames from fighter jets to fashion.

A Rimowa frame carries none of the luggage maker's wheels or locks, yet the anodized aluminum ring is the same quiet signature as the grooves. For anyone who knows the suitcase, the MR007 reads as a piece of the same kit.

What comes next is open. The partnership is long-term, and the Heritage and Visor families are named now, but Rimowa has not dated a second drop or said what either family will absorb. Krueger offers no forecast beyond calling restraint a sign of what is to come.