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Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car

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Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car

On April 5, 2022, Mercedes-Maybach will unveil the final chapter of Project MAYBACH - a collaboration with the late artist, architect, creative director, fashion designer and philanthropist Virgil Abloh. Designed in 2021 with Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, the vehicle was completed before Abloh's untimely death in November and is available in a strictly limited edition of 150 units. The launch coincides with the release of a capsule collection designed by Virgil Abloh in collaboration with Off‑White™. It was developed in conjunction with the Project MAYBACH electric show car and is available exclusively in the Off-White™, Farfetch and Maybach Icons of Luxury online shops as well as in Off-White™ stores in selected markets.

inspired by Project MAYBACH

For more than a century, Mercedes-Maybach has defined the limits of luxury, and the limited edition Maybach by Virgil Abloh, a full featured Mercedes-Maybach S-Class S 680 continues this tradition. The exterior of the vehicle, developed by a highly specialized team of individualists and craftsmen from the Mercedes-Maybach Manufaktur in Sindelfingen, is painted in the two-tone special paint finish specially created for Project MAYBACH. While the upper part of the vehicle is finished in a glossy obsidian black, the lower part, the side flanks and the special forged wheels are painted in a sand tone.

The high level of craftsmanship is continued in the interior of the vehicle with an identical two-tone color scheme. The four-seater configuration, steering wheel, lower dashboard and headliner are trimmed in black and sand-colored Nappa leather with sand-colored decorative strips. The high-pile floor mats are black, bordered with sand-colored leather and embroidered with the Mercedes-Maybach logo. To emphasize the monolithic appearance, the window frames are painted and a special Mercedes-Maybach and Virgil Abloh logo is engraved on the piano black center of the center console, rear seat cushions, door sills and headrests.

with customized user interface

Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car

A unique feature of the limited S-Class is a tailor-made user interface that presents the driver with an even more luxurious variant of the Maybach MBUX suite at the highest technological level. Selected visual elements are used to embellish the digital content: from a colored bordered home button and branded logo denoting the edition, to profile pictures adorned with luxe fashion accessories. The result is an even more intuitive vehicle that exudes the unmistakable style of the limited edition from exterior to interior. Every moment that the driver spends on the road becomes something very special.

All customers receive a specially made wooden box covered with sand-colored nappa leather and bearing the Mercedes-Maybach and Virgil Abloh logo. The gift box contains a 1:18 scale replica of the vehicle, the two vehicle keys and a carabiner. Customers also receive a special vehicle cover with the Mercedes-Maybach and Virgil Abloh logo as a gift. the Capsule Collection, which will also be launched on April 5, 2022, was designed by Virgil Abloh together with Off‑White™ in conjunction with the electric show car Project MAYBACH. It includes sand colored t-shirts in washed vintage cotton, crewnecks and hoodies in semi-brushed cotton fleece, as well as canvas baseball caps and racing gloves in canvas, neoprene and suede coated with a black spray effect and embroidered.

Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car

The limited edition S-Class is Abloh's third collaborative project with Mercedes-Benz and second with Mercedes-Maybach. On December 1, 2021, Mercedes-Benz presented Project MAYBACH as part of Miami Art Week at the Rubell Museum in Miami: a show car that illustrates the possibilities of future designs for electric vehicles. A year earlier, driven by a shared passion to enrich the discourse on luxury design, Abloh and Wagener had reimagined the Mercedes-Benz G-Class with Project Geländewagen.

created in collaboration with Virgil

Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, says: “I am incredibly proud of the work we have created in collaboration with Virgil. From Project Geländewagen, which set the benchmark for fashion and automotive collaborations with our iconic G-Class, to Project MAYBACH, which carried the significant legacy of Mercedes-Maybach into the future, we truly broke new ground together with Virgil . The limited edition Maybach by Virgil Abloh is an example of the symbiosis of innovative design and supreme craftsmanship that is now hitting the streets.”

Bettina Fetzer, Vice President Communications & Marketing Mercedes-Benz AG says: “Working with Virgil on Project MAYBACH has been a unique and inspiring journey into Mercedes-Benz's idea of ​​zeitgeist, co-creation and contemporary luxury. This time, the development of products that can be purchased was the key for both parties to advance the cooperation. The Limited Edition Maybach by Virgil Abloh and Capsule Collection creates a truly exceptional customer experience and we are honored to present it.”

Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car

The collaboration with Abloh is just one example of how the Mercedes-Maybach brand continues to focus on innovation and evolution. Looking to the future, Mercedes-Maybach will launch its first all-electric model in 2023. However, sustainability not only refers to the drive technology, but also to the materials with which the vehicle is equipped. During the development process, Mercedes-Benz creates a recycling concept for each model, in which all components and materials are examined for their suitability for the various stages of the recycling process. The aim is to reduce the environmental impact of the materials used in the production of every Mercedes‑Benz vehicle.

About Virgil Abloh (1980-2021)

  • Born in Rockford, Illinois, Virgil Abloh was an artist, architect, engineer, creative director, artistic director, industrial designer, fashion designer, musician, DJ, and philanthropist. After earning a civil engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he earned a master's degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago. It was at the IIT, where he followed a curriculum originally developed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, that Abloh developed the foundation of his artistic practice. In the summer of 2019, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented a retrospective of his work designed as a touring exhibition – one of the most visited exhibitions in the history of the museum. Abloh was chief creative director and founder of the label Off‑White and artistic director of the menswear collection at Louis Vuitton.

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Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car

Virgil Abloh and Mercedes-Maybach create the ultimate legacy car
Photo credit: Mercedes-Benz
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About Thomas Wachsmuth

Thomas Wachsmuth - He has been an integral part of tuningblog.eu since 2013. His passion for cars is so intense that he invests every available penny in them. While he dreams of a BMW E31 850CSI and a Hennessey 6x6 Ford F-150, he currently drives a rather inconspicuous BMW 540i (G31/LCI). His collection of books, magazines and brochures on the subject of car tuning has now reached such proportions that he himself has become a walking reference work for the tuning scene.  More about Thomas

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