As the biennial auto show gets under way, Lamborghini and BMW’s MINI have previewed new models, from two extremes, which the firms hope will shake up their respective markets
EVENTS
Game-changing Concepts at the Paris Motor Show
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
As the biennial auto show gets under way, Lamborghini and BMW’s MINI have previewed new models, from two extremes, which the firms hope will shake up their respective markets
As the biennial auto show gets under way, Lamborghini and BMW’s MINI have previewed new models, from two extremes, which the firms hope will shake up their respective markets
Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
The premiere of the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, is named after the sixth element of the periodic table, carbon, which is the material (CFRP) giving the car its feather weight feature – in spite of the burden of a supercar-sized engine. Automobili Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann suggested to Forbes that it would be a game-changing design in the sector : “It shows how the future of the super sports car can look,” Winkelmann said. “Extreme lightweight engineering combined with extreme performance results in extreme driving fun.”
Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
The MINI Scooter E Concept
First previewed during the London Design Festival, BMW’s MINI brand is also hoping to shake up the market with its new retro-looking eco-scooter concept. “The MINI scooters are based on an electric drive train so that would lead to zero emissions and that’s the same as the Mini E and the electric car,” said Adrian van Hooydonk, head of design at BMW. The Daily Mail profiled its high-tech gadgetry including a snap-in adaptor in which a driver can insert his smart-phone into the front console. The feature functions like a secure ‘key’, allowing only the driver to start the engine.
British model Agyness Deyn unveiling one of the MINI Scooter E Concept models in London before their launch at the Paris Motor Show
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Luxury & Fashion Business Journalist, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Vogue.com Strategic Consultant, Swiss Textiles Award, Diptrics
