Luxury car brands swerve from the driver’s seat to the sofa suite

“Live the way you drive . . . ” Slowly? Cautiously? On the edge of inevitable breakdown, surrounded by the crumbs of endless children’s snacks? Clearly, these words are not aimed at me and my hand-me-down Renault Clio.

In the context of the Bentley Motors website, however, they have more appealing connotations: being encompassed in sleek curvilinear lines; encircled in cutting-edge design; and cosseted in luxury leather. “Live the way you drive,” the brand suggests, “with a range of handmade furniture inspired by the techniques, materials and finishes found within Bentley’s renowned cabin interiors.”

Unlikely as it perhaps seems, automotive marques are increasingly manoeuvring into the world of interiors. It’s not merely a case of emblazoning towels and mugs with brand logos (although these are readily available, at Porsche Home for example). Now you can work at an aerodynamic Bentley desk, lounge on a Lamborghini sofa, or even live in an Aston Martin-designed apartment.

“As an ultra-luxury brand, you have to venture out into other sectors,” says Marek Reichman, executive vice-president and chief creative officer of Aston Martin. “You limit your reach if you stay within your automotive safety zone.”

In Crewe, Cheshire, Bentley Home was launched quietly in 2013 in response to customer demand. “Customers were saying to us, ‘I love the car, I love the quality materials; I want that same experience to continue when I enter my home,” says Chris Cooke, the head of design collaborations at Bentley Motors.

The interiors offshoot is a collaboration with the Luxury Living Group (LLG) — a designer, producer and distributor of high-end Italian-made furniture that first partnered with Fendi in the late 1980s. Today it delivers home collections for a trio of Italian fashion brands — Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Trussardi — as well as for automakers Bentley and Bugatti.

The idea with this sofa was to do something completely bold. Something, you know, ‘Why not? It’s Bugatti’

The fashion-to-furniture crossover has become an established business model; at Milan Design Week in April, labels such as Ralph Lauren, Hermès and Gucci launched new furniture collections, while others — including Loewe, Saint Laurent Rive Droite and Issey Miyake — presented more temporal installations and collaborations.

“When you translate fashion to home you can be a bit playful,” says Monique Zappalà, art director of both Bentley and Bugatti Home, who worked for fashion labels Valentino, Rick Owens and Armani before moving into interiors. But, she says, “You cannot be playful with Bentley. You have to be very serious about the aesthetic and the design.” Although: “I think my background has helped give a little bit more sexiness to the brand,” she adds.

The new Bentley collection unveiled in Milan’s Palazzo Chiesa last month brought together curvy shapes and tactile materials: wood veneers and metal inlays, lacquer and leather, with the odd, embossed winged “B” motif flying around. While the headboard-backed luxury Langport bed was designed by longtime collaborator Carlo Colombo, the modular Loftus sofa with its “floating” cushions is the work of Federico Peri — one of two new, young designers chosen, says Cooke, “to inject some vibrancy”.

The other is Francesco Forcellini, whose sinuous Wilton desk fuses a “super-contemporary lightweight aesthetic with those really well-known Bentley values like craftsmanship, quality, attention to detail”, says Cooke.

Bugatti, meanwhile, is “taking a completely different journey” in its home range, says Zappalà. “Bentley is really enjoying the ride; Bugatti is speed, it’s power.” In Milan, a courtyard-displayed Mistral roadster set the tone for a glassy, glossy collection punctuated with titanium and carbon fibre. Most striking, however, was the voluminous metallic Type_3 sofa that is “the opposite” of all the other finely tuned offerings, says Zappalà. “The idea with this sofa was to do something completely bold. Something, you know, ‘Why not? It’s Bugatti.’”

Automotive oomph was a trending theme at Milan Design Week. Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota, staged an installation around the theme of “future mobility”, inspired by its LF-ZC battery-electric concept vehicle. Less about coffee tables, more about concepts, it brought together the creative visions of Japanese designer Hideki Yoshimoto (who founded the initiative Craft x Tech to connect traditional Japanese crafts with cutting-edge technology); musician and composer Keiichiro Shibuya; and Dutch solar designer Marjan van Aubel.

Customers were saying, ‘I love the car, I love the quality materials; I want that same experience to continue when I enter my home

At Ralph Lauren, fashion met furniture and fast cars in Modern Driver: a collection paying homage to Lauren’s own fleet of classic cars; at its core is the 2003-designed, mid-century style, carbon-fibre RL-CF1 chair inspired by his 1996 McLaren F1 supercar.

While Aston Martin has previously dabbled in furniture (in 2018 it unveiled a collaboration with Formitalia, with whom it no longer has a licence relationship), it recently unveiled its first real estate project: a 66-storey Miami waterfront development of 391 condominiums — one in eight of which have been acquired by Aston Martin owners. “If someone becomes in love with a brand then they want it to encompass more of their life,” says Reichman, who has created bespoke furniture designs for the space.

Bentley’s own Miami high-rise is due to be completed in 2027 — showing a similarly wholesale approach to brand “lifestyle”. “We’ve had customers come into the [Bentley Home] atelier in Milan and buy absolutely everything that they see, including the shelving units and the books,” says Cooke, who also notes that the brand has seen a growth in interest. Since 2020 (when LLG joined the Poltrona Frau Group), Bentley Home has recorded an approximate 65 per cent increase in sales (as of the end of December 2023). “We’re trying to stretch the brand and use Bentley Home as a way into a more contemporary customer base,” he concludes.

But while car brands are busy making furniture look less like cars, some new-gen designers are bringing cars directly into their work. Portugal-based Dozie Kanu, for instance, has used wheel rims as chair bases — a nod to the custom car culture in his hometown of Houston. A project by London-based Andu Masebo, meanwhile, was based on a scrapped 1998 Alfa Romeo Cloverleaf 145. Titled “Part Exchange” and exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum last year, it featured cleverly upcycling pieces of furniture as well as video-documented conversations with the car’s previous owners.

“The first owner was this amazing woman called Jean who lost her husband to cancer; her story of overcoming loss was so connected to the sense of freedom she felt within the car itself,” explains Masebo. “Our cars become quite emotionally charged; they’re integral to where we go and what we do.” My battered blue Clio may have high-design potential after all.

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