Mercedes-Maybach reveals collaboration with late fashion designer Virgil Abloh

Mercedes-Maybach has revealed an electric show car that was built in collaboration with the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who died last Sunday, aged 41.

Dubbed Project Maybach, it is ‘a collaborative electric show car designed to inspire the next generation, and forever question the status quo’.

Abloh was the founder and CEO of luxury fashion brand Off-White, artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, and creative director at Kanye West’s creative agency Donda. He died on November 28, 2021 after being diagnosed with a form of cancer called cardiac angiosarcoma in 2019.

In a statement, Mercedes-Benz said: “Mercedes-Benz is devastated to hear of the passing of Virgil Abloh. Our sincere thoughts are with Virgil’s family and teams.

“Now opening the world of our collaboration, and Virgil’s unique vision, to the public we want to respectfully celebrate the work of a truly unique design talent, who created endless possibilities for collaboration through his unbridled imagination and inspired all that knew his work.”

Project Maybach is a collaboration between Abloh and Gordon Wagener, chief design officer at Mercedes’ parent company Daimler. The show car imagines how the brand’s cars would look if they were off-road-focused, rather than urban.

It combines Maybach’s traditionally large platform – this vehicle is almost six metres long – with a two-seater coupe body style, chunky off-road tyres and appropriate accessories such as a roof tray.

Abloh and Wagener wanted to conceptualise the future of sustainability, ‘untethered by production requirements’. As such, Project Maybach gets a transparent bonnet with solar panels beneath that can top up the car’s battery and increase its range between charges.

Project Maybach is currently on display at the Rubell Museum in Miami