Unlikely brand extensions
If you’re a believer in sticking to core skills, best turn away now. Time to empty a very mixed bag… By Guy Bird
HUMMER EAU DE TOILETTE
No car brand has ever screamed ‘sophistication’ as little as now defunct o¡-road leviathan Hummer. And yet someone in the marketing department agreed to a Hummer Eau de Toilette. You’d expect it to channel the whi¡ of the irst Gulf War and rural Texas combined. Bonus fact: smells okay.
FERRARI OFFICE CHAIR
Clear synergies here: some Ferrari owners work in o©ices and can a¡ord chairs that look a bit like their beloved
car seat. Made by Italian leather experts Poltrona Frau these are surely the quickest way to get fellow workers to respect you even less than they did before you blew £8500 on a chair.
ASTON MARTIN SUBMERSIBLE
Aston has paired up with Triton Submarines for its Project Neptune submersible. With so many luxury car marques now selling yachts – Mercedes, Lexus and indeed Aston – it’s perhaps itting that the British brand with the Bond connections should go to the next level… down.
PORSCHE WINE
Just because your irst car – the 356 – recently celebrated its 70th birthday that’s no reason to add your well-regarded brand name to a bottle of wine. But Porsche o¡ers
something called Cuvée 356, an £18-a-pop brew made in Austria. Not to
be confused with anti-freeze.
JAGUAR WATCH
Watch makers working with car makers is almost as established a tradition as timekeepers and racetracks, with mixed results, but the Jaguar x Bremont MkI and MkII E Type collection is among the best, with dials inspired by car speedos and a rear rotor akin to a steering wheel. Smart.
CITROËN SPECS
Plenty of car brand names turn up on specs and sunglasses – but hats o¡ to Citroën for focusing on its passenger comfort roots with patented Seetroen spectacles, designed to reduce travel sickness. Fluid in the frames’ bottom halves replicates the horizon line,
easing your nausea.
MINI HOUSING
Mini, once only known for small-andsmart cars, is now applying similar thinking to its freshly launched housing division. This Beijing concept previews some neat uses of space that could ind their way into the production Mini Living apartments launching in Shanghai in 2019.
MASERATI FINGERLESS DRIVING GLOVES
Maserati’s perforated ingerless driving gloves are unapologetic (or unknowing?) throwbacks to ’70s macho driving accessories, as part of an actually quite agreeable collaboration with luxury Italian brand Zegna..
LEXUS TRAINERS
Perforated bright red leather with black suede won’t be everyone’s cup of
trainer tea, but these L ex us commissioned rare grooves from credible old-school Bolton-based maker Walsh somehow hit the spot. You can believe the design was inspired by the CT’s interior or not.
BENTLEY DOG BASKET
Bentley showed this pooch pad at the Milan Furniture Fair a few years back alongside other pieces in its Bentley Home range. With quilted leather cushioning and a walnut-veneered shell – both sensibly wipe-clean – there’s absolutely nothing ridiculous about spending £5000 on this. No sir.