Virgil Abloh has collaborated with Mercedes-Benz on a new project.
The Louis Vuitton menswear designer has joined forces with Gorden Wagener, chief design officer at the German car manufacturer, to design artwork called “Project Geländewagen,” inspired by the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
Wagener told WWD: “Mercedes-Benz today is much more than a luxury carmaker, it is a design brand and luxury label. One major reason for our success story is our aesthetic soul and the unique style of our house. The next step in pushing Mercedes-Benz’s design is our collaboration with Virgil Abloh. We are set to create something unseen in both of our branches.”
Abloh called the project a “perfect chassis to interject modern artists’ ideas of what the future can be stylistically, within conceptual car design.”
The new project will be digitally revealed on Sept. 8, 2020.
Bettina Fetzer, vice president of marketing at Mercedes-Benz, said: “We picked Virgil because he really brings his unique approach to that. If you have met him before, you know he can be very philosophical about what he’s doing and there’s this kind of substance behind him. There is this whole inspiration and then he translates it into a product. It was absolutely inspirational for us, we also think that with all the story that we’re going to be telling around this piece, we will be able to create a very emotional brand story to connect our different audiences.”
A home-scale replica of the artwork will be auctioned online after the launch, with proceeds going to charity.
