these people say, i want the best

Glamorous liaisons

It's THE world's fastest handbag.

Meet the Bugatti Veyron Fbg par Hermes, a $2.4 million, 253 mph, 1,001 horsepower hypercar, a collaboration between Bugatti and Hermes' elves on the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore.

Go ahead, inhale the excess: the two tone, ebony and brick bull calfskin interior; the saddle stitched steering wheel (requiring 30 hours of handwork); the wheel locks branded with the signature "H"; the door handles borrowed from an Hermes valise; an Hermes wallet fitted to the glove box; and special luggage for the trunk.

aaa replica designer handbags Now this, this, is how to accessorize.

Unveiled at Geneva's auto show in March, the Veyron par Hermes will be available by special order to no more than 15 customers worldwide by the end of this year. And yet the wait is still shorter than for a Birkin bag.

The Veyron Fbg par Hermes is the latest and most lavish of a recent slew of low volume fashion automaker collaborations Lamborghini and Versace; Cadillac and Bulgari; Mercedes Benz and Armani; Alfa Romeo and Costume National that celebrate the awesome power of rich people to get anything they want. Call it car ture.

"Even with a car as special as the Veyron, some customers have expressed a wish for even greater personalization. The Hermes allows us to give it to them," says Alasdair Stewart, sales and marketing director for Bugatti.

You see, high net worth types have a problem. Some of the world's most prestigious brands Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Dior have sunk into mass class ubiquity, so it's hard to tell who's rich and who's just overextended. Another problem for the rich: There are just too many of them. In 1986, Forbes magazine identified 140 fake louis bag billionaires around the world. fake designer bags The 2008 survey listed 1,125 billionaires. The growing ranks of ultra wealthy have put pressure on prestige brands to be ever more exclusive and more distinctive. "These people say, 'I want the best. I can afford the best. I want it to be mine and... I want people to know it,' " says Wes Brown, principal of the Los Angeles marketing research firm Iceology.

With regard to cars, one of the cheap louis vuitton bags from china most gorgeous signifiers of class, the problem is particularly acute. There was a time when a white Mercedes Benz convertible was the ultimate in swank, Beverly Hills affluence. Now you can't get arrested in one, unless you are Britney Spears.

So, while 1:1 replica handbags the stock Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 might be fine for some people one hit movie producers, NBA stars and other mere millionaires it's a bit quotidian for the extremely wealthy. If you're one of these unfortunates, your luck is turning. Last cheap replica handbags year Lamborghini offered the Versace Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 edition. The top grain, vegetable dyed leathers and stitched Greek fret motifs in the Lambo are the same used on Versace's furniture.

"There is replica louis vuitton bags from china a natural synergy between Lamborghini and Versace," says Roberto Selva, director of Versace's home design division. Both are exclusive, image driven brands, both make products in very low volumes and both, interestingly, favor stark, chromic shades of black and white. "Black and white is very important language for our design."

Also, in the last few years, Hermes and Versace have been reaching out beyond couture to bespoke mega luxury items, what Selva calls the "new frontier" of luxury. Both couturiers have received commissions to put their marques on helicopters, jets and yachts.

Affinity marketing is not only for the hyper rich. These alliances are struck when fashion houses and carmakers are talking to more or less the same customer, in roughly the same income bracket. Bulgari is a fine old Italian luxury goods company but isn't in the same league as, say, Harry Winston. So it made replica louis vuitton sense for it to link up with Cadillac another respectable but not elite luxury brand for the Bulgari kissed Neiman Marcus Edition XLR.

Mercedes Benz a notch up the mass class totem pole from Cadillac recently collaborated with Armani for a 100 unit run of the Armani edition CLK Cabriolet.

In the last year, Alfa Romeo which is desperately trying to enhance its youth cred offered two low volume, designer editions of its 147 runabout: the 147 replica louis vuitton bags C'N'C cheap louis vuitton bags from china uk CoSTUME NATIONAL, with a gritty streetwear edge by designer Ennio Capasa; and the 147 Murphy Nye, inspired by the company's line of nautical sportswear.

So far, it all makes sense. Carmakers sell a few special order cars at obscene markups (the Veyron par Hermes will set you back $1.2 million more than a regular Bugatti). Fashion houses get a tidy profit center and piggyback on the massive marketing throw weight available to a global car company. Car buyers levitate grandly above the riffraff and their pret a porter cars. Glamour begets glamour. Everybody's happy.

The only problem is that fashion designers really aren't able to make many modifications to their special edition cars. True, they might be able to pick out an exterior color or select some interior fabrics as long as those fabrics are fireproof and sun resistant but, on balance, it's quite hard to retrofit a car with couture.

"Cars are the most accountable products that you can buy," says Freeman high quality designer replica handbags wholesale Thomas, Ford's director of design. "There are certain things you can change, like the seats, but as soon as you get into the moldings or the instrument panel, then you've reached the limits. They have to be absolutely safe, reliable and durable."

What it comes down to is that, as in so much other co branding, what consumers are really buying is a name, a label in high quality replica handbags china a collar.

"People are brands, and brands are people," says Ford's Thomas. If they validate something, you know it doesn't come from a corporate committee, but it comes from an individual [who] has a philosophy.".