High-Fashion Meets the Automobile

In 1974, American Motors Corp. hired Oleg Cassini, fashion legend and official designer to former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, to put his stamp on its midsize Matador Coupe. Ornate touches included an Oleg Cassini medallion on the front fender and embroidered into the front headrests; individually adjustable reclining seats with special black upholstery featuring copper buttons; a dashboard panel with copper trim; and door pull straps, instrument dials and a steering wheel with copper-colored inserts. If you couldn't tell, copper was a major theme. In addition, copper was an exterior color option, the extra-thick carpet and grille both came in copper, and there was an optional interior clock with a copper face.

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The Aston Martin Cygnet is already a collaboration of sorts — it's essentially a rebadged version of the Toyota iQ — but the British automaker has added a touch of French style to the Japanese minicar by teaming up with Parisian retailer Collette for a limited-edition run of 14 vehicles. The cars come in an exclusive Lightning Silver exterior color, accented with blue detailing, and they sport a new bumper, hood, wheels and mirrors. Inside, Colette has added unique patterned fabrics and extra cushions and throw pillows — yes, throw pillows — in Bitter Chocolate, with hand-sculpted, stainless-steel badges and a custom key ring. Further differentiating the Collette version is the price tag, upping the ante from £31,000 (about $47,000 at current rates) for the pedestrian Cygnet to almost €49,000 (about $62,000).

Bing Images: Aston Martin Cygnet

The Iranian-born, Los Angeles-based designer Bijan Pakzad is without a doubt one of the most flamboyant characters on this list, and his signature yellow Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe — often seen parked outside his Beverly Hills boutique, as was his yellow Bugatti Veyron — certainly turned heads. Bijan was set to partner with Rolls on a limited-edition line of Dropheads before his sudden death last year, though his fashion house went on to release a fully yellowed-out Drophead that includes a pavé diamond watch embedded in the dashboard, a compartment specially designed for a bottle of Bijan fragrance, and a crystal-stemware picnic set placed in the trunk. Asking price for the special edition is rumored to be as much as $1.6 million.

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Ultraluxury marque Bentley is known for its spare-no-expense interiors, including dash-mounted Breitling clocks in current models. The collaboration goes both ways, with the Swiss luxury watchmaker, founded in 1884, offering a line of Breitling for Bentley chronographs designed around various reference points in the British automaker's history. Models include the Bentley Supersports ISR, named after the brand's supercar; the GT Ice and GT Racing Ice to commemorate Bentley's recent world ice-driving speed record; and the Barnato, named after the most famous of the Bentley Boys, the dashing group of playboy racers that helped cement the brand's racing pedigree in the 1920s and '30s.

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Not all automotive fashion collaborations have such overt on-vehicle branding — or are necessarily meant for production. Example: this concept vehicle, revealed at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, created by Lacoste and French automaker Citroen. Aside from a discreet "Lacoste" on the bumper, it forgoes splashing the fashion house's logo everywhere — no seats covered with tiny alligators, unfortunately — and instead focuses on creating an open-air hatchback with cutaway doors that embodies the Paris-based fashion house's vision of the sporting lifestyle. The pearl white and gray vehicle is highlighted by splashes of bright color, which suits Lacoste's notoriously preppy aesthetic, and the small, buggylike all-roader is meant to be fitted with specially designed sporting equipment, including a bike, surfboard, skis, golf clubs and, appropriately, tennis racquets.

Bing: Luxury Cars

Creating watches for performance-oriented automotive brands is a no-brainer. Automakers from Lamborghini to Bugatti, Honda and Porsche have offered either collaborations or their own timepiece. Ferrari's former affiliation with Italian watchmaker Officine Panerai yielded some of the most stunning — and, with vintage models fetching between $5,000 and $7,000 online, pricey — examples. Our favorite: the Ferrari GranTurismo GMT, a black-faced timepiece with an extra hand for Greenwich Mean Time and a unique case that references the iconic lines of the prancing stallion automobiles. Ferrari recently announced a new partnership with Hublot as the official "watch and timekeeper of Ferrari," though we think the Swiss watchmaker's Big Bang Tourbillon Ferrari doesn't capture the soul of the Italian brand quite like the Panerai.

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"There are icons of design, and then there are icons of Italian design." So says the Fiat website in describing its Gucci Fiat 500 collaboration, which starts from $23,000. The modern Gucci sensibility is highlighted by bling, and the Gucci 500 doesn't disappoint, with chrome door handles, mirror covers and hood spear. The Gucci stripe, in red and green, runs along the outside of the car under the windows as well as on the seatbelts inside. The Gucci "G" logo, too, is apparent both inside and out. It's seen on the wheels, exterior badges and shift knob and is embossed on the leather of both the front- and rear-seat headrests.

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Way back in 1976, when Cadillac was still the unrivaled top dog in the luxury segment, Lincoln-Mercury looked to close the gap by offering a Designer Series version of the Mark V. Four design houses — Bill Blass, Cartier, Givenchy and Pucci — were given the Mark V as a starting point and asked to customize color, fabrics, trim and detail work. Cartier, already responsible for the instrument panel chronometers in the Lincoln Continental Mark III sedans, created a gray exterior with red pinstripes and velour upholstery. Other designer Mark Vs had different color schemes but similarly featured pinstripes and velour upholstery — hey, it was the '70s — although the Bill Blass edition also had the option of dark blue and cream leather and vinyl. Each vehicle came with a 22-karat gold plate on the instrument panel, which could be customized with the owner's name.

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Adding high-fashion sensibility to an existing automobile rarely results in a more rugged version, but that's exactly the case with the one-off MINI Cooper Red Mudder, created by the twin-brother design team Dan and Dean Caten of DSquared for the 2011 Life Ball AIDS charity event in Vienna. Caten and Caten raised the chassis of a MINI Cooper S, tinted the windows, bolted on some mesh window grilles and added all-terrain tires, rally headlights, a new front guard and an exposed spare tire on the rear. Further emphasizing the adventurous aesthetic is an interior compass and floor mats made from aluminum sheeting. The DSquared maple-leaf logo — the brothers Caten hail from Canada, after all — appears prominently on the outside as well on the leather headrests inside.

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As is by now apparent, manufacturers tend to collaborate with designers of the same provenance, and vice versa. Such was the case in 2005, when color-loving British designer Paul Smith joined forces to create a limited-edition bike with iconic English motorcycle company Triumph. Nine special-edition Bonneville T100 bikes were customized by Smith, featuring one-off paint schemes and produced for display and sale in Paul Smith stores alongside a limited-edition fashion line consisting of Triumph-branded, vintage-inspired motorcycle jackets, T-shirts, jeans and accessories.

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Josh Condon has covered everything from nanotechnology to champagne and caviar for the likes of The New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Cargo and RL Magazine. He's recently relocated from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Los Angeles and is spending way, way more time in his car as a result.

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