Car designer brands
Luxury auto brands are well aware that their target audience is the same buyer who is attracted to the high-end fashion world and who wants an increasingly exclusive retail experience. The latest trend has luxury auto brands expanding into retail. The brands are putting their brand names on everyday lifestyle luxury products like handbags.
Bugatti, the very prestigous car brand, launched an exclusive apparel and accessories collection carrying the Bugatti logo. Included in the collection is an exclusive blue crocodile skin handbag for women, the shape of which is said to be inspired by the Bugatti’s front grille. Bugatti will open at exclusive boutiques around the world in the next few years to sell the high-end fashion collection. In addition, Bugatti introduced an exclusive program in which custom made branded products are created to a customer’s specifications.
Bugatti Automobiles president Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber said: “Bugatti not only stands for benchmark technology and breath-taking performance, but also for art, design and a sophisticated lifestyle”.
Bugatti is not the first luxury car manufacturer to launch a fashion line. Bentley started selling $5 500 (R58 306) handbags. Furthermore, Porsche created its own design label decades ago and also launched a women’s fashion line in 2009, which included a line of handbags, which was promoted by Maria Sharapova. According to the Wall Street Journal: If handbags seem to be a theme, there’s good reason: Luxury auto brands want to attract more women, both as fashion buyers and car buyers. The personnel director, told the Journal, “Only 12% of our customers are women, which isn’t good enough. We want to double this percentage within the next five years.”
Of course, with these top-luxury fashion items retailing from a few hundred dollars to a whopping $60 000 (for a Bugatti belt), you might as well just buy a car.