TRAVELING in style is a luxury most people crave. Yet with the harsh beating our luggage usually has to endure at the airport en route to our destinations, most of us settle for the plain, nondescript yet functional pieces of baggage to ensure our precious effects stay unscathed.

Style is a luxury, indeed, and like all luxuries, it has a tendency to be acquired at the expense of something else.

However, today’s sophisticated travelers require their travel accessories luggage to be more than just utilitarian. For the past 33 years, Tumi, the renowned men’s lifestyle accessories brand, has been creating products that showcase design excellence combined with superior technology.

“The original Tumi bags used military-grade, ballistic nylon technology, the material used commonly in bulletproof vests,” Tumi’s local brand director, Dinah Alfonso-Lim, explains.

However, before you start thinking camouflage patterns and rugged designs, think again. The current line of Tumi accessories has chic zebra patterns and orange hues, a far cry from the conservative, ultra-professional look most traveling bags are known for.

“This season, we are adding more color to our new collection, in line with our new direction of making the brand more fashionable, in addition to being functional,” Alfonso-Lim says.

Last year, Tumi appointed David Chu, founder of Nautica, as executive creative director, overseeing all product design, advertising, communications and store design.

Chu brought a new sense of style, modernity and refinement, creating luxe collections of luggage, business and travel bags, women’s handbags and accessories, including scarves, neckwear and small leather goods.

Tumi’s new look and repositioning aims to reach new fans as well as to please brand loyalists. Supermodel Shalom Harlow, the new face of Tumi, brings a touch of high fashion to the brand’s latest campaign.

Famous clientele of the brand include a diverse mix of tinseltown and high-society players, from Tom Cruise and Shaq to Nicole Richie and Ashton Kutcher. Only recently, no less than US President-elect Barack Obama was spotted with a Tumi suitcase in tow.

Last September, the brand opened its first-ever Philippine boutique on the ground floor of Greenbelt 5, located alongside leading brands in the luxury market. The store features grand red murano glass chandeliers that match the red Tumi icon logo in the rear. The textured walls evoke eaves and sturdy macassar ebony and chrome fixtures, lending a look of luxury and an art deco touch.

All materials in the store’s construction were imported from abroad, based on the design of Tumi’s New York flagship store, created by David Chu’s brother, architect Peter Chu.

On your next trip, put your sunglasses and boots on, and walk down the airport with the chic-est bags. But rest assured that your precious luggage are in good hands (or in this case, a ballistic nylon sheath), because Tumi brings travel chic and functionality into every piece of baggage.