Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/175740
As the heir to the Fiat fortune, designer Lapo Elkann was born with a passion for cars. Ralph Lauren's 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder convertible. 204 BAL HARBOUR buttery soft leather interiors have inspired the designer's myriad collections, "from a watch to a chair to a woman's evening dress," he says. The fashion and automotive worlds have been constant collaborators over the years, usually for charitable causes and, often, with some rather offbeat results. For instance, British designer Paul Smith once painted a rainbow of his signature stripes on a Jaguar X-Type; Matthew Williamson added a shocking fuchsia and gold silk interior to a Rover 25; while, prior to his ouster from Dior two years ago, bad boy designer John Galliano teamed up with Toyota to fashion a limited-edition Paseo in canary yellow with swooshy green stripes. But, for some, the collaboration is more than a folly. Designer Johan Lindeberg has been doing a lot of Instagramming lately with his black 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL, a car he also featured in his 2012 ad campaign. While Kenneth Cole, who once outfitted a Mini Cooper convertible with studs for charity, discovered his passion for automotive muscle behind the wheel of a black 1966 Mustang, a car he drives regularly on Martha's Vineyard. "I appreciate timeless style, and the Mustang is a classic," says the designer behind some of fashion's most ideological advertising campaigns (his latest is a nod to standing up for your rights—in the right shoes, of course). "It's an understated machine that looks good, and runs even better, which is what makes it quintessentially cool," says Cole, whose love of the car is so deep-rooted that he actually uses Mustang leather on one of his duffle bags. Cole also owns an Aston Martin, but he doesn't like to talk about it. Italian menswear designer Stefano Ricci has long held a passion for fast cars and even faster fashion, and, whenever possible, he loves to mesh the two. At one time, Ricci outfitted a custom-made Lamborghini with an emerald green crocodile interior that was later sold at auction. Likewise, his collection of car coats, driving shoes, cufflinks and caps are sporty testaments to his love of vintage Italian sports vehicles. Ricci doesn't just love (and own more than 20 vintage) cars, including what he calls his "baby," a 1953 Lancia Aurelia B20. He is also the primary sponsor of Italy's historic 1000 Miglia car race, an annual auto event that pays tribute to the beauty of handmade Italian sports cars and, surreptitiously, to the art of the handmade suit. "Today, everything is manipulated by technology, so I decided it was time to offer a tribute to that which is still handmade," says Ricci, who finds a curious parallel in the world of handmade cars and clothing. In both cases, "you'll never find the right side exactly the same as the left," he says, noting how this lack of symmetry is evidence of the human hand and "the real point of owning something entirely handmade." Ricci says his love of historic cars was nurtured as a teenage boy, when his father gave him a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 170D. "It goes back to my childhood when I would stand and watch the cars zoom through Florence as they raced in the 1000 Miglia," says the designer, now a frequent participant in the race with his two sons, Niccolò and Filippo, to whom he's passed down both his design and motoring passions. For anyone who has ever dreamed of racing through the narrow cobblestone streets of Europe in a luxury sports car, Ricci will only say that the once-in-a-lifetime experience is "simply great."