"Bugatti not only stands for benchmark technology and breath-taking performance, but also for art, design and a sophisticated lifestyle," President of Bugatti Automobiles, Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, explained in a Sept. 19 press release. "This new lifestyle collection represents the DNA of our brand, and creates the opportunity to transport the aura and myth of this automotive icon into other aspects of life beyond the automobile."
Over the next five years, Bugatti plans to open 35 mono-brand boutiques across the world's fashion epicenters. The first will be a Bugatti showroom in Milan, opening in October, which will act as the reference point for the lifestyle project. Locations in Hong Kong and Beijing will have their doors thrown open in 2014.
The apparel is designed to capture the personal style and flair of mastermind Ettore Bugatti, expanding the brand to be more a fully encompassing luxury lifestyle title. All of the lines are predominantly designed for men, and are "designed to meet the taste of a highly sophisticated personality, who loves luxury and performance and is a leader in his field." A blue crocodile skin bag was designed to appeal to female clientele, shaped to reflect the unmistakeable horseshoe of the Bugatti's front grille.
The Ettore Bugatti Monogram Line boasts "sartorial lines and intensely sophisticated textiles," echoing design elements of the Royale and Atlantic. Brooches featuring symbols from the company add another touch of personal flair to any outfit, showing off the wearer's favorite era for the manufacturer. One brooch reincarnates the dancing elephant, drawn by world-renowned sculptor, and Ettore's younger brother, Rembrandt. Like their father Carlo, Rembrandt was also a graduate of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.
The Extreme Performance Macaron Line brings the mechanincal innovation of Bugatti to the world of fashion with the introductions of "exclusive technical and high performing fabrics, stretch materials with graphics and reflective tape." To commemorate the land speed record time set by the Veyron Super Sport in 2010, each piece in the line will be limited to a production run of only 431 pieces.
The Tailor Made or Bespoke Line reserves the best of Bugatti's opulence and refinement for their most refined consumers. All items from this line are custom crafted from the finest materials available by request and appointment only.
To learn more about the ability to carry Bugatti excellence with you wherever you are, read the press release below:
- Presentation of exclusive apparel and accessories collection
- Collection will consist of two lines, Ettore Bugatti Line and Extreme Performance Line, complemented by a Bespoke Programme only for Bugatti customers
- Global retail network of 35 exclusive mono-brand boutiques to be established over a period of five years
Milan Fashion Week sees an exciting event this Thursday with Bugatti launching its new Lifestyle Collection at the renowned Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Under the headline of "Art, Forme, Technique" the French luxury Supersports Car maker is presenting an exclusive collection of apparel and accessories. Bugatti plans to set up a retail network in the world's major capitals of fashion and luxury, establishing up to 35 exclusive mono brand boutiques over a period of five years. The collection will feature two fashion lines - Ettore Bugatti and Extreme Performance, complemented by a Tailor Made / Bespoke programme, which is dedicated exclusively to Bugatti customers.
"Bugatti not only stands for benchmark technology and breath-taking performance, but also for art, design and a sophisticated lifestyle," says Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, President of Bugatti Automobiles. "This new lifestyle collection represents the DNA of our brand, and creates the opportunity to transport the aura and myth of this automotive icon into other aspects of life beyond the automobile. Through the growth of our retail network in the future we will be able to even more increase the worldwide visibility of our brand and its values 'Art, Forme, Technique'."
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Bugatti's new lifestyle collection will feature two main lines dedicated predominantly to men, which will be focused on in the launch phase: The Ettore Bugatti line and Extreme Performance line. In addition to these two lines there will be a Tailor Made / Bespoke programme, which will be available exclusively to Bugatti customers. The collection will concentrate on clothing and accessories in its starting phase to be complemented by design 'objets' at a later stage.
"The Bugatti Lifestyle Collection represents the first authentic expression of luxury lifestyle in an automotive brand," explains Massimiliano Ferrari, Managing Director of Bugatti International and in charge of Brand Lifestyle. "It builds on the brand's deep-rooted heritage and the remarkable vision of its founder. The brand today is a combination of its Italian roots in art and creativity, French passion for luxury and German engineering. The same winning alchemy will now be extended to include accessories, clothing and design articles."
Bugatti will start in its major markets with exclusive single-brand boutiques, flagship stores and shop-in-shops in the finest department stores, all centered around a striking new retail concept. The retail project also involves prestigious partners, including premium brands in the luxury sector such as Parmigiani Fleurier Swiss watches and Lalique.
The Milan launch event will be followed in October by the opening of a Bugatti showroom in the city, which will become the reference point for this lifestyle project. The first single-brand boutiques are expected to open in Hong Kong and Beijing in 2014, with up to 35 exclusive mono-brand boutiques to follow in major international fashion and luxury hot spots over the following five years.
To celebrate the artistic roots of the brand, Bugatti has chosen the Academia di Brera in Milan as the stage for its launch event. This was the place where Carlo and Rembrandt Bugatti, father and brother of company founder Ettore, studied art and laid the foundations for their careers as a designer and artist.
The Collection Lines - all three lines strictly follow Bugatti's design DNA and style
"In our collection the brand's heritage melds with a contemporary vision of the word 'style'," describes Massimiliano Ferrari. "We wanted it to show Ettore Bugatti's philosophy as well as his technical and creative genius, manifested in two lines with a highly striking identity expressing extraordinary luxury and advanced technology. Each and every dress style, from sophisticated outerwear to leisure, is linked by the fil rouge - or better the "fil bleu", honoring Bugatti's historical color - of dynamic, extrovert, original luxury to create a lifestyle of rare beauty."
Ettore Bugatti monogram line "EB". Elegance, craftsmanship and outstanding design are the hallmarks of the Ettore Bugatti line, featuring the distinctive EB monogram (for Ettore Bugatti). The EB Collection was created to express Ettore Bugatti's self-confident personality and way of living as well as the heritage of his iconic creations in terms of design codes and materials.
The EB pieces impress with their clean, sartorial lines and intensely sophisticated textiles. The largely Italian creative team worked with passion and great craftsmanship and managed to distill Bugatti's main design cues and transfer them into fashion design: jacket linings and the lower outlines of collars echo the form of Bugatti's car radiator grills. They took inspiration from historic Bugatti car models, such as the Royale or the Atlantic with its distinctive Center Line, and created dynamic forms expressed as a stripe on the back of cashmere knitwear and inside shirt collars.
Symbols of the brand such as the famous Dancing Elephant, drawn by Ettore's younger brother and world-class sculptor Rembrandt, make their return in the form of brooches to be flaunted or worn below the collar, as a perfect accessory for the self-confident personality.
The EB line and its flamboyant character is completed by more formal outfits, crafted with the best Italian tailoring expertise and materials, as well as with a Luxury Leisure capsule collection.
Extreme Performance Macaron line. The Extreme Performance line bears the Bugatti logo, the so-called Macaron, and adds a stunning and extreme range to the world of leisure wear, featuring exclusive technical and high performing fabrics, stretch materials with graphics and reflective tape. The nine layers of the tinted, exposed carbon fibre body, another strength of Bugatti engineering, are a key element in the design of these fashion pieces, together with the aerodynamic lines and cutting-edge materials used in modern Bugatti cars. This line talks about Bugatti's expertise in using innovative materials, developing advanced technologies, power and excellence.
Each piece of this line is limited to 431 units, commemorating the land speed record time achieved by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in 2010 and thus making it the world's fastest production sports car.
Both the EB and the Extreme Performance lines are very distinctive in their individual characters and yet complementary in bringing together the brand's dual spirit of performance and elegance.
Tailor Made / Bespoke. The Tailor Made / Bespoke programme is dedicated to, and available for, Bugatti owners exclusively. All items will be made on request and by appointment only, featuring supreme, contemporary formalism and the best possible fabrics and precious materials in order to satisfy a very selective and exclusive club of international owners.
All three collections bear the distinctive "Fabriqué en Italie" logo and are strictly "Limited Edition". They were designed to meet the taste of a highly sophisticated personality, who loves luxury and performance and is a leader in his field. Customers can choose from a selection of suits, outerwear and accessories, enhanced by a lavish tie collection and a series of bags with unique characteristics, their shapes drawn from the design of the customers' cars and translated into the line of the garments.
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The blue color, which is the brand's signature code, is a key feature of this first collection.
Although the collection launches mainly as a men's collection, the designers created one piece for women: a very exclusive blue crocodile skin bag, the shape of it inspired by the unique horseshoe of the Bugatti's front grille, another characteristic symbol of both classic and modern Bugatti cars.
About Bugatti
Unlike other automotive brands, Bugatti originated in the field of art. The company founder Ettore Bugatti, born and raised in Milan, Italy, succeeded in uniting this artistic approach with his technical innovations, thus creating the foundation of a design language that was to mould the Bugatti marque. The result has been a series of vehicles far ahead of their time, and which are today numbered amongst the most valuable classic cars in the world. The brand's central philosophy of "Art, Forme, Technique" is a description of its mystique.
Still based where the brand was founded more than 100 years ago, in Molsheim (Alsace, France), Bugatti today is part of the Volkswagen Group and as a brand represents an ingenious combination of the brand's strong Italian roots and artistic style, French passion for luxury and German engineering. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 was the car that led the brand into a new successful future. It is the most powerful and fastest production car in the world and is outstanding in terms of driving dynamics but also in terms of usability. The Veyron combines both these contradicting extremes in the most elegant way - and created a success story for Bugatti: To date both coupés, the Veyron 16.4 and the Super Sport, which were limited to 300 units, are sold out, and out of the 150 roadster versions, currently in the portfolio, the Grand Sport and the Grand Sport Vitesse, only a little more than 50 cars are still available.
With around 30 dealerships and service partners in 18 countries, Bugatti is a global player today. The brand has a presence in regions including Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, as well as in Japan, Singapore and China.