SHAPE Magazine 1 / 2013 - SCA

The phone
wears Prada
Companies from different industries collaborate
with famous designers to enhance the value of their
brands and appeal to new consumers.
text JONAS REHNBERG illustration TEAM HAWAII
EMBRACE A GAULTIER-DESIGNED
corset by having a Coke. Enjoy the
texture of a Porsche surface by
touching your computer’s external
hard drive. Or wear Prada simply by
picking up your cellphone. All of this, and
more, is possible in the era of cross-branding,
when large companies seek new ways
of boosting the brand and reaching new
consumer groups by teaming up with
leading designers.
Style and design are becoming increasingly
important in an age when personal
branding ranks high on the agenda of
consumers, particularly in the world’s
growth markets, where the spending
power of the middle classes has skyrocketed.
And designer collaborations
Coca-Cola Gaultier-style.
OUTLOOK
“I want to dress a
Coca-Cola the
Gaultier way.”
Jean Paul Gaultier, at the launch of
his first bottle design.
aren’t confi ned to products but extend to
services such as hotel stays as well. Italy’s
Missoni has designed several hotels, and
when Giorgio Armani, perhaps the country’s
best-known designer, unveiled his
intention to collaborate with the Emaar
Hotel & Resorts, he underlined the pervasiveness
of fashion.
“Today, more than ever before, fashion
has expanded to encompass our way of
life, not just how we dress, but where we
live, which restaurants we eat at, which
car we drive, where we go on holiday and
which hotels we stay in,” Armani said.
“This continues our ongoing strategy of
building the Armani universe into a comprehensive
lifestyle brand.”
Another prestigious name that has
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