Why car companies are embracing fashion collaborations

Top Gear is on what appears to be a New York rooftop, beside one of the water towers that define the NYC skyline. In reality, we are inside a disused power station in northern Germany, now used as a studio, where somebody has taken considerable care to recreate a New York rooftop.

I am resting against a solitary Mercedes G-Wagen: an original SWB model that has received a serious transformation. Classic G-Wagens are in vogue, but this is something beyond that. It is the product of a partnership between Mercedes-Benz, French outerwear brand Moncler and Nigo: Kenzo’s creative director, DJ, art collector, friend of Pharrell Williams, the OG hypebeast and a genuine 21st-century renaissance man. Nigo is present too, although interviews are not really his thing. His mystique remains carefully intact. I greet him; he gives a stylish nod.

Called Past II Future, his G-Wagen follows Moncler’s Project Mondo G, whose wheels were turned into huge silver cladding resembling a puffer jacket, while its paint was deliberately weathered. It was more sculpture than automobile, seemingly capable of travelling across the moon. Nigo’s car is a terrestrial one-off, featuring a distinctive puffer cover at the rear, two-tone paint, a gold fuel-filler can and a bespoke audio installation by audiophile and artist Devon Turnbull.

There is also a Moncler x Nigo capsule collection, drawing on early-1990s US east-coast hip-hop style. Alongside other G-inspired pieces, it includes a bomber jacket carrying a G-Class print and a shirt decorated with a dashboard graphic. At the Shanghai launch, a billboard lit up with the phrase, “Where the future is driven by the past.”

And you thought Mercedes was simply a car manufacturer.

Why car companies are embracing fashion collaborations

Fashion partnerships are hardly new territory for car makers, yet the strange era we inhabit has accelerated the trend. Analogue is battling digital, style is replacing lifestyle, and brand is everything. Mercedes has been especially active, raising the standard dramatically with the late Virgil Abloh - Louis Vuitton menswear’s artistic director and an undeniable polymath - on the 2022 six-metre-long, solar-powered electric Project Maybach off-road super coupé. (NB: Abloh also created a G-Wagen.)

Recent tie-ups elsewhere include a one-off activation between the Alpine F1 team and Palace Skatewear; Kith and BMW reworking a BMW M1 in their third collaboration; Bentley launching a capsule range with London label Picante; Porsche joining forces with New York label Aimé Leon Dore; and Lewis Hamilton’s +44 venture partnering with Tyler, the Creator’s Golfwang label ahead of the Vegas GP. (Lewis, always ahead on fashion, also worked with Japanese artist and car enthusiast Hajime Sorayama.) Each has been meticulously designed to break the internet and send social media into a 600mph whirl.

“Fashion labels are brilliant at branding and marketing,” says Peter Howarth, formerly editor of Esquire and Arena and now men’s style editor at Times Luxx. “They’re among the best known names in the world partly because they’re aggressive about their visibility. You don’t need fashion to get dressed or to keep warm, they’re selling you something they want you to want. They’ve built up this equity over decades and understand how to make it work. So lots of other industries look to fashion because it’s shorthand for desirable. And, by its nature, it makes you contemporary by association.”

Howarth believes a collaboration must feel credible if it is to succeed. The G-Wagen is a functional vehicle, while Moncler began in France in 1952 to serve mountaineers and explorers, so the link has genuine authenticity. “Moncler’s appeal is in the R&D, it’s in the performance of the thing,” he continues, “even if a Moncler jacket is sometimes like a G-Wagen parked in Knightsbridge. The other way a collab can work is if it’s a total surprise. Gucci did a tie up with The North Face which nobody saw coming.”

Paul Smith and Mini: a longstanding partnership

The relationship between Paul Smith and Mini is already firmly rooted. In 1999, the celebrated designer covered the original Mini in stripes for a 40th-anniversary edition: an unambiguous triumph for Brand Britain, before Brexit tarnished that concept. More recently, the Mini Strip pushed the partnership further, reimagining a Mini Electric in ways that questioned a host of conventions in both the car and fashion worlds.

“Here was someone who was asking us questions we really don’t ask ourselves very often. Because we’re the experts, you know?” Mini design chief Oliver Heilmer admitted. “So it was very refreshing. [Sir Paul] started the whole process off by asking things like, ‘What is it made of?’ ‘Do we really need that?’ And then, ‘Well, can we get rid of it?’”

They could indeed. “When you see the Strip with just one protective coat of paint on it, there are lots of imperfections and scratches, and that I find interesting and modern,” Sir Paul told Top Gearahead of the car’s reveal. “As a clothes designer, I often hand stitch and put the sleeve head in by hand. Everything is so homogenised now that I like things that indicate handmade, hand finished, raw. My father was a very practical man. He was always in his garage or workshop, and never employed anyone to fix things because he loved doing it himself. So I was brought up with the idea of making do and getting by. It’s a really interesting approach.”

As with a Paul Smith suit, the concealed surprise is central to the story. “The car is full of tricks. You might be wearing a classic piece of clothing and then you’ll have a brightly coloured scarf or socks. I call them punctuation marks. In the car there’s a fluorescent orange safety strap and I love the doorhandle... it’s made of plaited climbing rope.”

Car companies will continue to seek strategic partnerships wherever there is kudos to be had and brand capital to be made

Ferrari takes the car-and-fashion connection further

One-offs and capsule ranges are the profitable staples of such collaborations, and manufacturers will keep pursuing strategic partners wherever prestige can be gained and brand capital generated. Moving into a standalone fashion label, however, is a step that few could realistically consider beyond selling the usual logo-heavy merchandise. One major name is doing exactly that: Ferrari, whose standing among the fashion world’s tastemakers is gathering pace - though not quite as rapidly as its racing cars.

“Our customers can buy anything they want,” Ferrari creative director Rocco Iannone tells TG while explaining the marque’s shift into haute couture. “Ferrari for them is a community. They are part of an inner circle where we talk about the same values and emotions. After seven collections we have developed a dialogue with our customers. This has helped me emancipate the design language from the automotive side, focusing on the interpretation of the emotions Ferrari can express. But there is still some crossover, and just walking around the factory can be inspiring.”

Charles Leclerc has recently revealed his own capsule collection, naming “Riviera vibes” and the coast as key influences. But what about F1’s GOAT arriving at the team? Surely a +44 collaboration must be in prospect. Back to Iannone.

“Lewis Hamilton is a fashion hero. He has created a community around him that trusts him and the values he represents, and he has built up his credibility step by step. He has shown that you can achieve the dream. And what is more Ferrari than this message? Ferrari and Lewis is an amazing combo. This contamination is going to be bombastic!”