The flagships of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group – Aston Martin, Jaguar and Range Rover – are all about lifestyle, or so it’s said. Owning one of the products of these brands makes a statement about you, and the group’s management is eager to help its customers carry that statement through into every aspect of their lives.
It does this, as do other top car firms, by creating branded goods that transfer the image of the marque into clothing, jewelry, gadgets, executive toys and the rest. You name it – if it’s part of gracious living, you’ll be able to find it somewhere with a luxury car manufacturer’s name on it.
So the PAG brands aren’t unique in this. Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and the rest all have lifestyle accessories that cover everything from key rings to mountain bikes that can cost far more than most of us paid for our first car – in some cases, any car we’ve ever owned. PAG, however, is keen to use its collections as statements. The statements are to be design-led, styled by people who are – at least to those who follow the world of design gurus – well-known.
The new direction comes under the aegis of Wolfgang Reitzle, the autocratic boss of PAG, and is no doubt also influenced by J Mays, Ford’s design boss, who is interested in design in general, not just mere cars. The first collection to reflect this ethos is that of Aston Martin, styled by an ex-Gucci designer. Brands like Jaguar, which already has a wide range of accessories conceived in the days before PAG, will be given the ‘design’ treatment when the current licenses run out.
by Ian Norris
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