Ferrari is opening a new showroom. There won’t be a single car in it

It is Paris Fashion Week 2026 and the usual crowd has assembled. Anna Wintour and Vanessa Friedman types cosy up next to celebrities, influencers and myriad hangers-on. They’re all here to soak in the latest outrageously avant-garde collections from Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and … Toyota? Cue the shattering of champagne flutes as supermodels pose in the tray of a HiLux ute rumbling down the catwalk.

It might sound like a scene from a cutting-room-floor version of The Devil Wears Prada, but it’s actually nowhere near as far-fetched as you might think. Car companies are turning to the world of high fashion to broaden their audience and unlock new revenue streams, and that really does mean that some high-end fashion precincts will soon have a car brand sandwiched between Chanel and Cartier.

Mask sunglasses add a dash of F1 appeal on the catwalk at the Ferrari show for Milan Fashion Week 2024.Credit: Launchmetrics Spotlight

The automotive world has always been a passionately tribal place. There was Holden versus Ford, of course. Or the better-heeled BMW versus Mercedes-Benz. There’s Ferrari’s 400-million-strong Tifosi army of F1 fans. Or, more recently, the cult-like followers of Tesla and Elon Musk. Drivers of vintage Range Rover Defenders will look you straight in the eye and explain how the ever-present risk of having to tow their vehicle home only adds to the excitement of owning one. And if someone at a party ever starts to explain the merits of a Honda VTEC or Mazda rotary, just start running and don’t look back.

All of that means automotive collaborations have become big business for car companies. It allows these many tribes to wear their colours on their (at times literal) sleeves. Or even on their skin: in the US, Ford and Dr. Squatch partnered on a special-edition Bronco-branded soap last year. It sold 40,000 bars in three days.

Another collaboration, this time between muscle-car maker Dodge and LA streetwear label Warren Lotas, sold out in less than an hour (the shoes were gone in seven minutes). Both Ford and Stellantis (parent company of Jeep and Dodge) say their annual merchandise sales now hit about $1.5 billion annually.

BMW has collaborated with US streetwear fashion brand Kith.

BMW’s collaboration with streetwear brand Kith also sold out in minutes. Then there’s Mercedes-Benz and Moncler. Hyundai and L’Eclaireur. Even super-luxe car maker Bugatti once partnered with Adidas on a limited run of football boots.

New EV makers from China have also been quick to embrace a lifestyle-focused approach. Nio, for example, operates a string of Nio Life stores across China, calling on a network of more than 500 global designers to produce everything from fashion to homewares.

Mercedes-Benz’s links to the world of fashion stretch back some 30 years in Australia, with the German brand first partnering with our Fashion Week in the 1990s. Global partnerships with designers such as Heron Preston (a collection made from airbags) and a range with Moncler, which was sold through Mercedes’ online store, now pop up on a near-annual basis.

The goal, says the company’s head of brand engagement in Australia, Jerry Stamoulis, is to strengthen the obvious links between its cars and fashion. “The decision to buy your first or next Mercedes-Benz normally starts with a vehicle you admire; the design is what first catches your eye,” he says. “Car design and fashion have a lot in common, so it’s only natural that they collaborate. These events and partnerships are also a great way to connect with our customers, and to offer experiences as a reward of ownership.”

But a shift is now occurring. For some high-end brands, the days of collaborations are over. It’s out with the hats, and in with the in-house haute couture. The newest members of staff, then, aren’t engineers, but fashion designers and luxury branding experts.

Ferrari is ahead of most of its supercar rivals when it comes to capitalising on its fans’ pent-up passion. The Italian supercar maker sold roughly 13,000 vehicles in 2024 (and that’s a lot for them – total global production used to be capped at just 10,000 cars). Yet last year, the brand made an additional $1.1 billion through its “sponsorship, commercial and brand revenues” division, which includes lifestyle, fashion, merchandising and licensing royalties. It embraces what it calls an “inclusive and exclusive dual nature” strategy; in short, while not everyone can afford a Ferrari vehicle, most can afford something associated with the brand.

Anna Wintour at the Ferrari fashion show during Milan Fashion Week 2024.Credit: WireImage

High-end fashion was identified as a major growth channel for Ferrari about five years ago, and a new strategy to shift upmarket and design its own clothing lines was deployed. In 2019, Rocco Iannone, formerly a designer and creative lead at Pal Zileri, Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana, joined the company as brand diversification creative director. Job one was to review the products already wearing the Ferrari logo. Around half were deemed too off-brand and were axed. In 2021, the brand’s first ready-to-wear collection from Ferrari Style debuted in its Maranello factory, where production lines were converted into catwalks.

“The young generations have the power to express the energy and the power of a brand,” Iannone said at the time. “Someone is saying, ‘Aren’t you scared of becoming too approachable?’ I think the risk instead is that if we don’t do this, we become irrelevant and not known.”

Maria Carla Liuni joined the Italian brand as its chief brand officer in 2022, having held high-ranking positions at Pandora and Bulgari, as well as Procter & Gamble’s Prestige division, helping launch make-up, skincare and perfume ranges for Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Hugo Boss. Her automotive experience? Non-existent. Which was exactly the point. The executive presented a five-year plan to Ferrari’s board, detailing exactly how she would drive the brand in a more fashion-focused direction. Her strategy, she said, would “ensure the relevance of the brand for future generations”.

In 2024, a Ferrari show was part of the Milan Fashion Week schedule. Anna Wintour was in the audience. Next year, the brand will open two new boutiques – one on Bond Street in London and the other in Soho, New York – where nary a car will be seen. Instead, they will act like any other high-end fashion flagship, selling only the company’s clothing and accessories.

Some experts, though, remain unconvinced by this new wave of fast (car) fashion, suggesting the climb from pop-culture collaborations to legitimate fashion house can be Everest-like in its difficulty. “Fashion gives car brands an opportunity to reinforce and reiterate their design credentials to new audiences. In the past, this has been done by successfully co-opting the design credibility of established fashion labels by collaborating on limited edition vehicles,” says Damien Woolnough, fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. “Reversing the direction and applying the design credibility of car brands to fashion has been less successful.”

It’s easier, Woolnough says, for certain fashion houses to shine in the automotive world than it is for car companies to prowl catwalks. Even as F1’s most famous team moves into fashion, for example, Tommy Hilfiger continues to make its mark on Formula One. The US label has been a partner of both team Ferrari and team Mercedes-Benz, is the apparel partner of the new Cadillac entrant, and is the official partner of the all-female F1 Academy. It even dressed Brad Pitt and Damson Idris in the movie F1.

British model Adwoa Aboah wears Range Rover’s London Collection.

“Ferrari has made the most noise and spent the most money,” says Woolnough. “While they have entered the conversation, it’s hard to be heard above labels such as Tommy Hilfiger making noise in the F1 landscape. They know every turn of building a fashion brand and are used to winning.”

Range Rover is the latest to swap the car park for the catwalk with its London Collection, which the British brand describes as a “curated and contemporary new luxury lifestyle capsule for discerning individuals who appreciate Range Rover’s vision of modern luxury”, spearheaded by creative producer Marcos Fecchino and modelled by British supermodel Adwoa Aboah. That “vision of modern luxury”, as it turns out, includes lightweight jackets (labelled Knightsbridge Promenade and Soho Chic), yours for $‌2450 each, along with a pair of silk scarfs ($735 each) and two wool-and-cashmere blankets ($2000 a pop).

The first eight-product capsule is just the beginning, with Range Rover planning new fashion drops on dates of historical significance for the brand, rather than following the traditional spring/summer, autumn/winter flow.

So, Toyota taking over Milan? That could be next. The brand has already partnered with Japanese fashion designer Jun Takahashi on a one-off vehicle that debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 2023. HiLux haute couture could well be coming to a boutique near you.

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