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Bathroom taps by Porsche, pens by Jaguar and wines by Diesel… luxury brands are venturing into new territories. Boyd Farrow takes a look at the goods
Carlsberg is preparing to roll out across Europe its much-loved UK TV ads which remind viewers of all the cool things it does not do, while cheekily suggesting that if only it chose to do these things, it would probably do them better than anybody else. The sentiment cleverly reinforces Carlsberg’s claim that it is probably the best in the world at doing the one thing it does.
Marketing genius, perhaps, but there might be a reason why the Danish brewer has not ventured into other sectors. Lager is, to put it politely, not aspirational enough a product to travel well. Unlike, for example, Krug, the pricey champagne, which teamed up with luxury trunk-designer Pinel & Pinel this summer to create a colt-hide trunk. Perfect for that lazy picnic – as long as you have a spare €44,000 and a team of Sherpas to carry it.
Although designed to transport Krug’s finest vintages, the trunk will hold all your fashionable favourite tipples: perhaps the ultra-premium vodka currently being hawked by Roberto Cavalli, the Italian designer favoured by the St Tropez set. Or that bottle of Piper-Heidsieck champagne “dressed by” Jean-Paul Gaultier. Or even a €145 bottle of wine from the vineyard of Renzo Rosso, founder of the sprawling Diesel jeans empire.
And what else to put in your stylish new hamper? How about some Versace glass tumblers, a Chopard tea set perhaps or a Gucci ice tray – a snip at €66? And of course all those delicious nibbles can be skilfully prepared in your new Armani sukupira wood kitchen. Yes, that Armani: he’s making kitchens now, but more of that later.
These days it is hard to find a venerable luxury European brand that is not sniffing out new niches. Consider the following website blurb: “Ducati Sport Classics evoke classic 1970s Ducati bikes, their breathtaking victories on the racing track and the brand’s dedication to Italian design.” These Sport Classics are not actually two-wheelers though; they are a collaboration between Ducati and The Aquila Group, a high-end Italian pen company. Understandably, thrill-seeking calligraphers will appreciate that they are “fashioned out of the aluminium alloy also used in racing cars and aeroplanes.”
Similarly Jaguar has just launched Concept, again with Aquila, a collection of luxury writing tools with a “subtle meeting of tactile metal finishes and lacquer [that] suggests the elegant juxtaposition of materials in Jaguar vehicles”. Naturally the colour palette includes British Racing Green. Says Ciaran Coyle, head of Beanstalk Europe, Jaguar’s licensing agency: “These pens are a statement of style. They say that Jaguar is a luxurious brand with high standards of quality and craftsmanship.”
Ironically, Montblanc, the luxury pen company founded in Hamburg a 100 years ago, recently diversified into watches and leather goods – where it is competing with the likes of, er, Mercedes and BMW, which has its own lifestyle product business dedicated to non-car-related products.
But it is predictably BMW’s little car with the big personality that is making in-roads into new niche areas. The Mini is seen as sexy, cool and trendsetting and the rather snazzy MINI_motion line features unisex high-tech clothing – lots of toggles and pockets – footwear and a particularly cool digital watch which changes from horizontal to vertical, making it easy to read even if you driving like Michael Caine in The Italian Job. The watch is sold through design outlets and is one of the best-selling items in the shop in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
Meanwhile Porsche, everybody’s other favourite car, attaches so much importance to its design that it has created a branded lifestyle business existing separately to the manufacturing branch of the company. Since 2005, products have been developed and marketed under the Porsche Design brand and sold exclusively in select department stores and specialist shops in London, California, Shanghai and Dubai. Highlights include smoking pipes designed around various fixtures and fittings found in a Porsche car, steel kitchen knives displaying the famous Porsche curves, a range of coffee-machines, kettles and toasters produced for Bosch and Siemens, and radios for Etón Corporation/Grundig,
Recently Porsche designed the F1 series for Keramag, part of Europe’s biggest bathroom company Sanitec. The concept refers to Keramag’s Grohe F1 range, and has nothing to with Formula One. The range’s design gimmick – although “gimmick” might not be a word Ferdinand Alexander
Porsche would use – is that all units lean towards the user. As the brochure explains, the washbasin is shaped in order to “offer” you water rather than drench your new MINI_motion loafers. While Porsche has designs on your bathroom, Giorgio Armani has his ever-shrewd eye on your kitchen. Armani, like many other fashion names, has effortlessly segued into home furnishings. His brand Armani Casa jostles for interior design magazine space with Versace’s Home Couture line, Missoni’s swirling carpets and Etro’s colourful knick-knacks. Ralph Lauren even has a line of house paint while expensive handbag-maker Bottega Veneta now has a niche line of animal skin-lined furniture.
But the Armani Casa collection has gone much further with its plans to stylise the very heart of the home. The new sukupira wood kitchen is devoid of bulky cupboard handles and ugly fixtures, in the same way Armani’s men’s jackets were stripped of their structured formality when he launched his fashion career 30 years ago. “In the end, all kitchens are the same,” Armani said when he unveiled his design – which incorporates woven bronze cabinets and fabric-covered drawers – at the Milan furniture show. “They’re all black holes. The solution has been to try to find a ‘dress’ for the kitchen.”
But could this frenzy of lateral thinking among luxury brands lead to a black hole in profits? “Brand extensions are a way of leveraging your brand into a new category – but the danger is brand dilution if it does not contribute back to the core brand,” warns Rita Clifton, chairman of Interbrand. She does, however, see value in the growing number of architectural ventures from multitasking designers.
“Hotels are very interesting and they have potential to add value,” says Clifton “but fashion houses need to ask: What are they bringing that is unique and will inspire a repeat purchase?” Armani, Versace and Missoni are all in the process of lending their names to hotel ventures, as is bling-merchant Bulgari, which has teamed up with Marriott to build a boutique hotel in Bali.
The company already has one luxury hotel and spa in Milan which discreetly promotes Bulgari’s home furnishings.
But perhaps nothing illustrates the circularity of business diversification better than Dunhill, owned by the Swiss luxury-goods giant Richemont. Originally, Alfred Dunhill’s family opened a shop in London selling linen but, capitalising on the number of horses in the city, they built a successful harness business. The dawn of the motorcar led them to manufacture motor accessories including dashboard clocks, trunks and a wind-resistant pipe. The world’s first one-handed pocket lighter was followed by dressing-table sets, cutlery and wristwatches and by the 1970s Dunhill was offering more than 3,500 products with a slightly faded cachet. Following a 2005 brand overhaul, Dunhill is hip across Europe once more, largely due to its new fashion lines – including some rather natty linen shirts.
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