Category: Fashion

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Cars Fashion

Carbon Fibre Fashion

Carbon fibre became a very popular material in many different areas. It started with airplanes, formula 1 cars, normal cars, laptop computers, iPhone cases and many other things. Carbon fibre is a composite material. This means, it is a combination of carbon and fibre. More basically, it is a very strong plastic! Actually it is stronger than steal and also very light, therefore it is very expensive. This unique characteristics make is very popular for automotive and aerospace industry. Mercedes McLaren SLR was a carbon fibre car, all formula 1 cars are carbon fibre, some Porsche 911 models especially GT series have carbon fibre parts to reduce weight and sustain the same level of safety.
Interestingly this ugly looking material and offers the feeling of plastic become a fashion material. Actually I was afraid of this integration in fashion, because carbon fibre is like a plastic. You cannot feel the difference in fashion products and looks weird. For iPhone cases, it might be okay. Light and robust to damages, that’s fine. A fresh fashion designer from Prague decided to use carbon fibre in shoes, in women shoes! I am not kidding. She designed high heels made from carbon fibre, the material looks exactly the same as a car interior or some unpainted parts of Mercedes SLR.
In terms of creativity, this is a great integration but in terms of functionality I really wonder the benefit. With these carbon fibres shoes, you will use less calories to walk around and even if you use them for breaking some other things nothing would happen. Also you can run faster with these shoes, as they are lighter! Actually I have no idea how carbon fibre create a benefit for fashion.
For more details; Zuzana Serbak and Carbon Fibre
Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes, BMW, Zuzana Serbak
Categories
Cars Fashion

Starts on paper, ends up on paper

Usually I don’t watch the videos on iPhone applications. They might be boring, too long or I just don’t bother to watch. This time I wondered the Fendi’s video section on iPhone application and watched it. It was an interview with Karl Lagerfeld. As you can imagine, it is all about fashion but I like the last sentence of the interview. Fashion starts with paper and ended up in magazine or newspaper, paper is the starting point and where it ends up. This sentence basically defines the fashion business.
From this point of view, cars stars with paper and ended up in paper also. The design stage, sketches mostly starts on paper, then to computer and later on with clay models. The production is done with metals and finally the pictures are printed on magazine or newspaper. I know the end up product of design is a car and made by steel, however every car built on earth printed on paper. Either it is nice or ugly, you can find a picture of each car printed on somewhere. As Lagerfeld mentioned, starts with papers, ends up with paper! I think cars and fashion have more common aspects than we know!

Pictures’ Copyrights
Fendi, Land Rover, Mercedes McLaren
Categories
Fashion

GQ Sections

I have been reading GQ UK Magazine for long time. I like the way they combine different topics together in one fashion magazine. You can find whatever you want in each issue. It is like a Swiss army knife magazines, if you want to learn life style start reading GQ. Especially the UK edition, because it is better!
However I have some concerns about GQ, as I mentioned they talk about everything but not everything all the time! Their car section is written by Celia Walden and Jason Barlow. Celia drove everything from tank to private jets and we know Jason from CAR and TopGear magazines. Despite the respectful contributors to car column, but I’ve never seen cars in their Style section. There are lots of things expects car. Actually cars are placed under “Entertainment”! GQ’s placement for cars is very interesting.
I know cars are entertaining but the stylish people do not drive cheap and dull looking cars. They spent fortune on stylish cars. Like, Range Rover Autobiography, Mercedes’s bespoke Designo, BMW Individual and many more. I am not expecting to see a diesel Volkswagen Passat Estate in Style section but they can place some of the cars under it.

Categories
Fashion

Lacoste Car: Citroën

I always respected integration of fashion and automotive brands but it does not happen that often. Actually the brand which supposed to be engaged with automotive brands does not involve. As I remember Mercedes and Armani had a special edition CLK, Ferre with Mini and Prada with Hyundai Genesis. Yes, that’s right Prada and Hyundai worked together. I really don’t know whether these cars sold to customers or they were just PR campaign.
Now Citroën introduced a concept car with Lacoste. For me Lacoste is the most boring fashion brand! They are selling the same polo t-shirt for last two thousand years. I am pretty sure that if you dig enough in Pyramids, you can find someone with Lacoste polo t-shirt. Also the long sleeve polo sweat shirt offers the same dullness with senseless prices. Lacoste is the definition for over priced products. They are selling their perfectly boring t-shirts for very exciting prices! If they were producing cars, they would be selling VW Golf for 50 000 € !!
There is no price and product relation! It is just a Lacoste. And probably Citroën Lacoste will be priced with a lot of zeros and it will be the same car for next four decades and offering ridiculously too much colours options. Citroën says it is offering minimalist Lacoste styling (I have never heard something like this before) with golf ball style and plenty of performance from engine and lastly inflatable roof.
I have never heard something more pointless and ridiculous than this :) If I summarize; golf ball inspired car with plastic roof and nobody knows how many horses are inside the engine. And tyres looks like really ridiculous. Sorry Citroën, my review is not that good! I hope it will be a concept forever :)
Pictures’ Copyrights
Citroën, Lacoste
Categories
Fashion

Mini the Mini: I don’t want anymore new Minis!!!!!

Mini became very aggressive to extend its product range like a handbag company. Their aim is to make more money, more cars and more dullness. Actually dullness is very subjective for Mini. For many people, Mini is something really special like an iPhone but they don’t know why they buy it. Mini is the best handling small car on market with independent rear suspension and communicative steering wheel, but who care? I guess only twenty percentage of the current owners pay attention to these details and the rest is a consequence of popular culture. Therefore I compare Mini with handbag brands.
Instead of being exclusive, Mini decided to offer anything kind of weird vehicle. With the last innovation Mini Countryman, they shifted into a new level of craziness. I think these creative ideas are coming from Germany, BMW HQ. British brands are not obsessed with extension this much.
Extending vehicle range like extending handbag range, helps to generate more money but also helps to ignore your core values. For instance, Mini as a size! But with Countryman, the small SUV of Mini is far beyond mini size. That’s a huge SUV for Mini and introduced with the urgency to eat the market share before Range Rover Evoque arrives next summer.
I thought this very creative marketing strategy ends up with Countryman but noooo! Mini is planning to introduce more interesting vehicles; two doors Countryman and a three seated city Mini. I really wonder what was the aim of current Mini? Did not market it as a small city car? And now you will introduce a Mini for city.
I really wonder where you have these ideas to introduce really “interesting” vehicles like these. Which expensive marketing report is suggesting that, there are some people on earth who don’t like current Mini and found it big and they want to have a city Mini with three seats! If you ever read this blog please let me know through the email button in the right hand corner.
As Mini introduces more “interesting” vehicles, it will be become a more senseless brand. Good thing is, you will be marketing lecture books as an adverse example!
The undercovered Mini will be revealed in London on 23rd of September at London Design Festival and BMW design will be there. Don’t miss it ;)
Pictures’ Copyrights
Mini and Louis Vuitton
Categories
Fashion

Pink perspective to automotive business

Right now I am trying to focus on totally something else and avoid writing on my blog. Because I have to concentrate on that subject! Anyway, as you are reading this post my concentration is diverted from that subject to this subject.
Enough with that and this game. I notice something very important for automotive business, I know none of the manufacturer will take it serious but I want to say it :) If you read any consumption report from shinny consultancy firms, you will notice that women don’t care about the price and they want to buy it when they see anything. Therefore, nothing is left on women sections of any department store. We can assume that, women buy with high price and ignore to wait until sales.
This is an important motivation to sell car which are hopeless or they don’t promise any muscular identity. Of course you cannot offer pink coloured Mercedes G Wagon, it has too much testosterone hormone for being pink. But there are some cars which have no hormones! For instance Nissan Micra. My dear blogger friend Iconjane has one. And I know many other girls who own a Micra. Micra is a women car, or in terms of German it has feminine article, Die. You cannot turn Micra into a VW Polo GTi! Micra’s target market is very clear, women!
For instance Fiat 500 is neutral car. It is neither male nor female. In terms of German, that is Das (neutral article). You can offer Abarth version with more horses and you can offer Barbie edition. It is very flexible product. 500 does not give the same message like Micra, “I am female or this car belongs to my wife”.
I cannot ignore the Honda Jazz also, that’s a women car and offers pink. Also Toyota Prius, kind of women car. Electric engine, no proper reason to buy, too silent, too boring; basically it does not offer any excitement. Actually that’s a hopeless car.
Anyway, my suggestion is to offer special women editions for these cars. Christian Louboutin edition, Chanel No.5 (I have no idea how to turn a car into a No.5), Louis Vuitton edition or pink edition. It should motivate women customers to buy! As usual with higher price, this is the basic of automotive business always charge more! So, if you have a women orientated or hopeless car focus on catching women’s’ attention, they would love it :)
By the way, men also spend pointless money on Ferrari Store and Porsche Design store. How do I know, I just look at the mirror !


Pictures’ Copyrights

Toyota, Honda, Chanel, Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, Nissan, Fiat
Categories
Fashion

Do you want fake engine noise for your car ?

Since the hybrid phenomenon started a question popped up in my brain. The hybrid cars have the capability to drive through electric motor thanks to batteries. And also they are very silent, efficient and you know the rest. Hybrids are the tree huggers!
But there was a minor detail many people ignored! The electric engines are too silent, that’s not something bad but they too silent for pedestrians. You won’t notice this until a hybrid was one meter away to hit you.
The ultra silent hybrids emerged a new problem of car sound. Because, many of us understand that a car is approaching to us by hearing the engine noise. And hybrids do not have an engine noise while they are using the electric motor. So, we will not hear anything and hybrid might crash to us. I think there are some incidents have happened.
Today Toyota announced that, they will be coupling hybrid vehicles with virtual engine noise! I have never seen more ridiculous that this. A car is making faking noise !?! I hope they will be working with game companies. I cannot imagine this hilarious condition of automotive business. They are trying to find ways to make fake engine noise. I am sure some tuning companies will remap the noise and your Toyota Prius can sound like a Ferrari :)
I am sure some ladies are reading this blog, and I would like provide a different explanation. Hybrids situation is like making fake noises for your high heels and help other people to realize that you are approaching. It is that simple :)
Pictures’ Copyrights
Toyota, Lexus
Categories
Cars Fashion

Desperate Housewives’ Gabrielle drives a Golf Car


Most of the readers of this blog is not that interested on Desperate Housewives when they have chance to watch BBC Top Gear. That’s normal, in Desperate Housewives there are people and they have problem all the time and millions of people are watching it. However the most important bit from Desperate Housewives is Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria). She is the hottest character on show and one of the main reason why many men are watching this show!
She is an ex-supermodel who moved into Wisteria Lane and married with Carlos Solis. As the Carlos is quite wealthy person on the show, she was driving Aston Martin, Maserati and Mercedes. However for a short time while they were suffering financial problem she was driving something with four wheel and an engine! However as they recovered, Mercedes introduced them Mercedes CLK63 AMG and Mercedes E Class (the cheap one, because the it does not have LED daylights) as product placement.

As you can notice, I am interested on Eva Longoria and I am following her in Twitter also. Hopefully she is very active and posting pictures. Recently she posted a picture from the shootings from the Desperate Housewives’ seventh season. Unfortunately we saw what really Gaby was driving :) An electric car which looks like a golf car with a rent me label. And she was excited with the trip.

Let’s go back to topic, Gabrielle character and Mercedes E class are not matching that well! Except Mercedes E63 AMG model, the rest is boring. You suppose to be middle aged men with kids and don’t want any sudden excitement. I really appreciate E Class but never dreamed of it! My suggestion for Gabrielle Solis is a Mercedes GLK350. It appeared in Sex and City movie and it is matching with sexy women image! GLK is mid size SUV which combines both muscularity with elegant design. I really like this SUV with no off road capability. And this will match her style, also she can get in and get out much easier :)
I hope Eva you will be reading this :)
 
Pictures’ Copyrights
ABC, Mercedes, Eva Longoria
Categories
Fashion

The coolest driver’s sun glass

Jason Barlow who is a great automotive journalist and currently writing in GQ UK and CAR magazines. Recently I read one of this article about driving sunglass; as he is writing in GQ this means that Jason has a sense of fashion unlike Jeremy Clarkson. So we can trust on Jason’s choices and mostly he is very good at that.
But in recent advice for driver sunglass was terrific. He suggested a brand called Serenti, actually I never heard of it and made some research on internet. As far as I can say, they are very good at optic business and they also have very clever designs. But the one which was recommended by GQ UK website was the worst one. A sun glass which looks like it is covered with animal print and looks really bad.
I don’t think that you would like to drive your Italian sport car with this sun glass. For that reason I did some research and found a better option. Unlike Jason’s article I don’t whether it has spectra control or photochromic or some other things which I have no idea. My recommendation is Italia Independent! They are Italian fashion company with great sense of design. I don’t care whether it has sensotronic something or ABS or air brake like Serenti but it looks excellent. Also it is offering ten different colours and one carbon fibre option! Yes, there is a carbon fibre sun glass :)
 
Sorry Serenti, carbon fibre is more sexy than sensotronic reflexive ABS system. I know Italia Independent may not offer the same comfort in some conditions but you will look much much better with them. And it is bit more expensive, if you could afford to buy an Italian car you can afford to buy this sun glass!
For more detilas about Italia Independent, click the link
Pictures’ Copyrights
Serenti, Italia Independent, Maserati
Categories
Cars Fashion

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swimwear 2011

As you might heard of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2011. Of course that’s not about cars, there are only E Coupe and SL 63 AMG were shown. This is a proper fashion show sponsored by Mercedes Benz. And as a public service from my blog, you can enjoy the pictures from Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swimwear :) You can also see Kim Kardashian, I hope she did not arrive with her pink Bentley :)

Pictures’ Copyright
Mercedes Benz