37 / goodwood the season

The original Fiat 500 is the car that everyone loved, and its

contemporary counterpart, which went on sale in 2007, is

similarly appealing. It’s this emotional appeal that allows the

500 to cut across the usual social stratification that’s implied

by a person’s choice of car. Everyone likes Fiat 500s, which is

why they are popular even in areas where people could easily

afford to drive something much more expensive.

London’s Notting Hill is just such an area, and there was

recently a unique Fiat 500, with a matte-finished olive-green

paint job, parked on the chi-chi Kensington Park Road. The

car, which has an Italian number plate, belongs to Lapo Elkann

{fig.1, with Gucci’s creative director, Frida Giannini} who,

along with his brother John and sister Ginevra, represent the

Fiat luxe

Words M a n s e l F l e t c h e r / PHoToGr A PH Y c h r i s F l o y d

the lovechild of two of italy’s cultural luminaries, the new 500 by Gucci infuses Fiat’s

beloved retro car with cool, Florentine glamour, debuting at this year’s Festival of speed

current generation of the Agnelli family, who founded Fiat at

the end of the 19th century. Elkann could drive any car he

wanted, not least because his family owns a considerable stake

in Ferrari, but he chooses to drive a Fiat 500 (as well as a baby-

blue Ferrari 599 and an army-green Jeep Grand Cherokee).

Speaking at the launch of the new 500 by Gucci, Elkann

– whose creative agency Independent Ideas also works with

fashion houses such as as Diane Von Furstenberg, Diesel, Levi’s

and Swatch – said, ‘This is a car that I feel affection for

personally and nationally. This car, to me, is like a girlfriend.

The 500 is my favourite car ever, and when I was manager of

the Fiat group it was a car I always wanted to come out. It’s the

cherry on the Fiat cake. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from,

fig.1

38 / goodwood THE SEASoN

it’s a car that puts a smile on your face. There

are very few cars like this in the world.’

One of the draws of the 500 is the degree

to which customers can make it their own – it’s

possible to specify all the available options in

half a million different combinations. However,

the newest version of the car, the 500 by Gucci,

is only available in one of two glossy finishes:

white or black. Both have a green and red stripe

running the length of the car just under the

window line. The green and red are the Gucci

colours, and, not coincidentally, also the colours

of the Italian flag.

Italy’s pre-eminent luxury fashion house,

Gucci, is currently enjoying unprecedented

success under the aegis of its Roman creative

director, Frida Giannini. Much of her success

is down to her canny understanding of the need

to balance fashion’s eternal pursuit of the future

with some strong echoes of a more glamorous-

seeming past. The clothes that Giannini designs

are contemporary versions of dresses and suits

from the Sixties and Seventies, and so the allure

of the new Fiat 500, itself a recreation of a

motoring icon from an appealing era, must have

been very clear to her.

This spring, the 500 by Gucci was unveiled

at a party at Milan fashion week. Earlier the same

day Giannini, sitting alongside Lapo Elkann,

explained how the car came about.

‘This product was born out of a wonderful

bowl of spaghetti with tomato and basil in the

Rome residence of Lapo, so it’s very Italian,’

smiled Giannini. She and Elkann are clearly good

friends, as they paid each other extravagant

compliments, but it’s notable that she said,

‘I trust him. If he has something in mind it’ll

come true, it’s not just a conversation over lunch.’

So it was that the 500 by Gucci went from

a conversation over pasta to a project that saw

Fiat’s Centro Stile design studio collaborate with

Giannini’s creative team. Elkann recalled, ‘Frida

and her team came up with millions of ideas.

When you see the car you see 100 of the concepts

deployed on the product – of the countless ideas

only 100 came true, but the team showed an

energy, verve and passion towards the product

that you can feel and taste.’ Giannini explained,

‘We didn’t want to create a new shape, because

it’s so right, we wanted to customise it as if with

make-up – it’s full of rich details. Of course the

price isn’t the base price for the 500 – it is

slightly higher – but it’s not impossible. It’s

still affordable.’

The car, while mechanically identical to

a regular 500, is extravagantly different in its

details. The exterior is decorated with the red

and green stripe, exclusive 16-inch wheels with

Gucci’s interlocking ‘G’ logo on the hubcaps

(which also have diamanté-studded spokes),

a different Gucci logo on the boot and door

frames as well as those specially developed paint

finishes, sparkling black or pearlescent white.

On cars fitted with 100HP engines the brake

calipers are in Gucci’s deep green, but the inside

of the car has received the most attention. The

seats are finished in leather and stamped with

a repeating Gucci logo, the belts are in green

and red, and the logo on the gear stick is a

further sign of the Florentine fashion house.

Just as the Fiat 500 makes sense to

Giannini, so Elkann is familiar with fashion.

‘I’m a suit freak,’ he says. ‘I’ve tested all the

tailors from Savile Row to Milan and Naples.’

As a man who regularly appears at the very top

of the best-dressed lists, and who was named by

fashion designer Tom Ford as the contemporary

male icon, he understands the power of image.

On the day of the 500 by Gucci unveiling, Elkann

wore a tan-coloured suit with wide peak lapels

made by Savile Row tailors Huntsman over a

chunky roll-neck sweater, with the collar of his

shirt peeking above the neckline. However, the

thing that makes him an icon isn’t just the outfit,

but the ease with which he wears it. Elkann

couldn’t look more comfortable if he was in a

pair of pyjamas and a dressing gown. By contrast

Giannini, sitting next to him, is the epitome of

starched chic, her model physique all the more

sensational given the demands of her job.

Elkann, an Italian patriot despite having

been born in New York, adores the Italianness

of the Gucci-designed 500 and is pleased it’s

arriving in 2011 as his country celebrates 150

years of unification. ‘Gucci and Fiat are two

global Italian brands, but they didn’t forget where

they came from, Gucci from Florence, and Fiat

from Turin.’ Then he adds, ‘I’m very proud to be

Italian. Italy has a potential that many other

countries would dream of having.’ It’s certainly

a potential fully realised in the new 500 by Gucci,

which will be launched this year at Goodwood’s

Festival of Speed.

Mansel Fletcher is Style Editor of British Esquire

‘The team showed an energy, verve and passion towards the

product that you can feel and taste’