Love my clothes, love my car

Mercedes is almost as much at home on the Nom*D runway as on the roads.

Designer Kate Sylvester, — her nose digitally straightened — smiles serenely from billboards and magazine pages, trusty Peugeot behind her. The World heads did something similar — replacing the serenity with an impish cheek — for Skoda. Nom*D has sent models down the runway wearing chains of Mercedes Benz keyrings. Start asking designer Karen Walker about her Range Rover sponsorship and she'll interrupt: "that's not a sponsorship, I'm an ambassador."

Apologies, Madam Diplomat. At first glance, cars and clothes don't seem a natural selling match; the first is for the boys, the second for the girls, right? But the more you think about it, the more driving gloves and silk gloves go hand in hand: fashion and new cars — especially the classy European car brands that fashion designers favour as sponsors — are both sold on image and design, and only the wealthy can afford them.

It's a case of "you introduce me to your customer database, and I'll set you up with mine". The car industry has woken up to the fact that women drive and buy their own cars, but, as Kate Sylvester points out: "women don't choose by revs or who's competing for rallies. For me, I choose a car because it looks good." Meanwhile, the fashion industry knows that car companies' male customers have wives who might appreciate an invitation to a fashion show at the dealership. Catwalks in car-yards? It's hardly grungy when the yards are plastered with more plateglass and Italian tiling than you'll find lining Vulcan Lane.

As well as fashion shows solely for their benefit, the car companies receive clothes to give away in promotions, and tickets to Fashion Week shows for VIP customers. Some get to put designers' faces on advertising and Karen Walker recently wrote an article about Range Rover for Top Gear magazine. Fashion label Zambesi and Volkswagen — who, after six years together, probably have the longest clothes-car relationship despite several pretenders — annually offer a young designer an internship at the fashion house, in association with Fashion Quarterly. Volkswagen also sponsors designer and fashion commentator Paula Ryan, who speaks at functions for the car company. In return, the fashion designers usually get discounted or free leases on vehicles, either year round or in the lead up to Fashion Week, and cash to help with their shows.

Do they get a say about their car? "I chose the colour," says Sylvester happily, about her silver Peugeot "station wagon" — specifically a 307.

For a general glamour gloss, Mercedes is the naming sponsor of Australian Fashion Week and also sponsors a "Start Up" incubator for emerging designers, but when car companies are linked to individual fashion designers, those designers can become the human embodiment of their image. It is easier for customers to identify with a person than a car brand logo — for example, we know fashion designer Trelise Cooper lives in Parnell, has a bach in Omaha, drives a Mercedes. The car becomes part of a lifestyle to which Trelise Cooper customers can aspire.

Car companies choose their designers depending on whether they want to enhance, or change their image. Putting a pregnant Sylvester on a billboard emphasised Peugeot's safety consciousness. (Although Peugeot importer Steve Kenchington seems a bit confused about the fashion industry when he says one of his brand's core values is "sure value and getting value for money — and that's what fashion's about, too".)

Using World designers Francis Hooper and Denise L'Estrange-Corbet in their advertising gave Skoda a surprise factor. "We're mostly about family values — which are good but can be boring — and World is an edgy brand so they gave an edge to us," says Douglas Blair, Skoda New Zealand General Manager. World had approached the car company and the relationship was working well, but Blair says Skoda didn't have the budget to continue the co-operation and discontinued it about a year ago. "I'd love to still be with them," says Blair, and yet, he volunteers that if Skoda were to look at fashion sponsorship again in a few years time, "we might not need that edge anymore", in which case another label would be a better fit.

On the surface, the most perplexing fit is the classic Mercedes with the alternative street label Nom*D, which associates itself with the hip-hop crowd. An outsider might speculate that Nom*D acts as a foil to the frilliness of Trelise Cooper, the other Mercedes fashionista, but Mercedes Group General Manager Martyn Dawson insists the company was just interested in supporting fashion in general and "wasn't trying to make it a synergy between brands." Besides, "hitting different demographics" with Nom*D's help, makes more sense than you might expect: Mercedes' model line-up has grown to 16 body types, from the expected $300,000 to the relatively modest $30,000.

Meanwhile, Nom*D's Margi Robertson thinks there is a "subtle" synergy between Mercedes and Nom*D, pointing out that Mercedes, like Hennessy Cognac, is "street desirable", mentioned in hip-hop lyrics as the epitome of bling. As well as styling one season with Mercedes emblems chains and pendants, Nom*D has, in the past, printed the Merc emblem on T-shirts, noting its similarity to the peace symbol. "We try to think of ways to give presence to Mercedes on the catwalk, rather than just have cars there," says Robertson, stressing that, "it's not required of us, it's something we have chosen to do."

All this activity means young designers now have car companies — as well as the customary make-up and booze merchants — in their sights as possible sponsors. Dean Sheed of Volkswagen says that pre-Zambesi, he might get two to four sponsorship proposals a year from the rag trade. Now that's climbed to about 15. What's next — frocks brought to you by Skellerup? 

* Read more about what's happening in the world of food, wine, party places and entertainment in canvas magazine, part of your Weekend Herald print edition.