‘Extensions of our persona’: Why car designers are turning to the fashion world

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Clothes make the man, as the saying goes, but does the car?

“Absolutely,” says Toronto-based car and furniture designer Davide Tonizzo. Fashion and car design are closely linked because they’re specialized industries working along similar lines, he said. “No other products are used to exude or extend our personalities to the general public more than the car we drive or the clothes we wear. These products are extensions of our persona.”

Clothes and cars require an emotional investment from the designer and the goal is to elicit emotion in the final product, he said. And emotion comes from style.

Tonizzo described car designers as “stylist[s] of sheet metal.” The goal of designing a car is to create desire in every surface and detail. “If you’re not willing to spend hours and hours sketching a headlight – forget it. Because that headlight has to have style – it has to fit with the rest of the body.”

When it comes to car brands that have embraced the fashion world, Mercedes-Benz is at the top, Tonizzo said. The German automaker sponsors fashion weeks around the globe from Paris and Milan to New York and Tokyo. The company often introduces fashion-inspired, limited-edition models such as the Concept Mercedes-Maybach Haute Voiture sedan, which made its Canadian debut at a pop-up shop in Toronto’s posh Yorkville neighbourhood in December. In conjunction with the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards, the venue showcased Canadian designers, luxury brands and high-end vehicles.

The star of the show was the Concept Mercedes-Maybach Haute Voiture sedan, covered in a stylish two-tone colour combination – dark nautical blue with champagne rose gold. It was a colour choice inspired by the runway, according to Belinda Guenther, senior manager of colour and trim design at Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

“That deep dark blue colour on its own is classical and then having that surprising moment combining it with rose gold – that’s the element we need to step out of that timeless, elegant mindset and create a twist and a surprise,” Guenther said. That combination can be likened to a runway model clad in a classic Armani suit, but fitted with an unexpected twist like a birdcage hat to shock and awe the audience.

The inside of the concept car is filled with high-end details and unexpected materials such as white faux-fur carpeting and textured bouclé fabric in dark blue and rose gold.

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“It’s a highly complicated textile. We have many different yarns in different thicknesses, quality and shades. If you asked me three years ago, ‘Can you put that textile in one of your products?’, I would have said ‘No way. It’s impossible.’” But now that’s the hottest trend, she says. “It’s like crafting a dress for your body. It’s the highest level of manufacturing – it’s handmade and the process takes a lot of time, hours and love in the details,” she said, just like designing that Armani suit.

“The objective is to create something that is not expected, surprising and the customer who looks at it and says, ‘I’ve never seen something like that in a car,’” Guenther said. And that desire to own something is created by exclusivity and limitation, which helps sell both cars and clothes, she said.

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Another German automaker, BMW, has also turned to the fashion world to design cars like its BMW I Vision Dee concept unveiled at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The exterior had bold colours, geometric shapes and graphics; while the interior combined technology with futuristic textiles – all inspired by the fashion world.

“We’re looking at what kinds of colours, patterns and textures they are using [in fashion],” said Charlotte Kanters, senior designer of colour and material at BMW Group. “We are expressive with the cars. Dee is an excellent example of this. We’re showing it with crazy colours and fading. It can be polarizing. People can think – this is far too much. But I think it’s always better that people are talking about things than when it’s like, ‘It’s okay,’” Kanters said.

The link between fashion and cars isn’t new – it dates back to the 1970s, Tonizzo said. He points to fashion partnerships with American Motors Corp., or AMC, which was eventually bought by Chrysler in the late-1980s. The Javelin got the Pierre Cardin treatment, while the Gremlin donned Levi’s denim inside.

Ford partnered with Cartier and Givenchy – more than 2,200 Lincoln Continental Mark V Givenchy Designer Editions were made for the 1979 model year. In Europe, Peugeot’s long relationship with tennis wear company Lacoste produced a 1985 Peugeot 205 Lacoste edition. And Europe’s best-selling Fiat Panda got a boost with the 2019 Fiat Panda Trussardi – a collaboration between Fiat and the Milan-based luxury fashion house. Fiat also showcased the new Fiat 500e battery electric vehicle at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show. Three 500e one-offs, designed by Armani, Kartell and Bulgari, took centre stage. All embodied “the Italian spirit and three souls of the new 500e: sustainable design, sustainable fashion and sustainable luxury,” stated the press release. It will arrive in North America in early 2024.

Car design also influences fashion.

“It’s a tight-knit relationship, a two-way street that started long ago,” said Tonizzo, referring to the early days of transportation when private vehicles were open, had no roofs and a single piece of glass as a windshield. Since the roads weren’t paved, people wore dusters, or long coats, over their clothing so they wouldn’t get dirty when driving. Purpose-designed hats, goggles and gloves were born of necessity, as was the “glove box” for storing them. “Fashion had to adapt because they saw an opportunity,” Tonizzo said.