Fasten Your Seatbelt (Bag), Courtesy of Škoda X Rave Review
Czech car manufacturer Škoda and Swedish cult fashion label Rave Review have teamed up to see just how much fashion you could get out of your car. Or any car, for that matter. From seats and seatbelts to vintage kilts and blanket fabrics, the collection reuses a wide variety of materials to create wearable pieces such as utilitarian-style jackets, pants, hats and bags. It’s giving the Jean-Paul Gaultier belt dress, but adapted for the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
The unconventional collaboration is part of Škoda’s new “Open Air, Open Roads” campaign, which aims to encourage viewers and customers to reconnect with nature and indulge in their spirit of adventure. It accompanies the launch of the all-electric Enyaq Coupé RS iV, the sportier and more powerful sibling to the marque’s Enyaq SUV, which premiered in 2020. The marque also has multiple new battery-driven vehicles currently under development, which will be launched within the next few years.
For Rave Review co-founders Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück, the collaboration represented an exciting new challenge for their brand. Founded in Stockholm in 2018, Rave Review is on a mission to challenge fashion’s high-speed, high-waste status quo. The industry is taking notice, too — the brand has been nominated for the LVMH Prize, and participated in a long-term collaboration with Gucci.
The construction process was far from easy, but Rave Review was definitely up to the task. “It was a bit challenging to work with some of the materials, especially the leather from the car seats since it is a lot tougher and stiffer than the kind of leather that is traditionally used for garments,” Bergqvist shares. “This was a completely new experience for us working with materials from scrapped cars and it is very interesting to see that even a thick piece of leather from an old car seat can become a beautiful, and most definitely durable, bomber jacket,” she continues. Both founders feel the collaboration has only encouraged them to grow their brand even further. “We have worked with a lot of “strange” materials over the years, but this project with Škoda has given us even more inspiration to push our ideas within upcycling,” Schück states.
Keen to win a bomber jacket, or another piece from the collection? Join the Škoda x Rave Review raffle now.
