The best non-car stuff to buy from Bentley, Porsche and BMW
Luxury carmakers are producing high-quality fashion items and accessories including sunglasses, jackets, bicycles, pens, watches – even racing boats
You’ve seen the television comedy Friends, right?
Did you see the episode in which one character, Joey – played by real-life car enthusiast Matt LeBlanc – dons a Porsche jacket and bumbag, holds a Porsche keychain, and stands on the street near a pile of cardboard boxes shaped like a Porsche 911 underneath a cold-weather car cover?
The charming – but light-in-the-wallet – Joey uses the tableau to pick up women under the pretence of owning a cool car.
The kicker to the scene is that, as Joey tells his friends, “only an idiot would wear this stuff if he didn’t own the car”. Ha, ha.
At the time, that scenario wasn’t far off. In the 1990s, most of the produce hawked from car brands was cheaply made and tacky.
Years ago, the flimsiest pair of headphones I ever used were given to me by Lamborghini; any normal human, not to mention someone with a sliver of fashion sense, would baulk at wearing the screaming red polyester polo shirts produced en masse from Ferrari.
Things have changed.
In fact, several automakers are producing some of the best-designed, most functional – and yes, even coolest – watches, sunglasses, and leather goods on the market today.
As well they should – at some companies, the cars and the accessories originated virtually hand-in-hand.