The Lincoln The design line was introduced in 1976, at the end of the majestic Mark IV Continent generation. Four major fashion designers of the era—American country club athlete Bill Blass, psychedelic Italian conductor Emilio Pucci, renowned French jewelry maker Cartier, and French fashion house Hubert de Givenchy – was asked to dress up their elegance Lincoln’s personal luxury coupe.
This experiment was a great success. According to documents discovered in Lincoln’s archives – with the one-of-a-kind guidance of official brand historian Ted Ryan – the Designer line “accounts for more than 27% of Mark IV sales” shortly after when introduced. It was such a huge success that it continued to last through the even larger Mark V generation (which happened to be the longest coupe ever produced by Ford Motor Company), and didn’t get really interested in these big two-doors until the early 1990s.
But the real history of this series predates the era of opera windows, electric wheel covers, and wire wheels.
“If you take a step back, when Ford bought Lincoln in 1922, Edsel Ford was given the right to run the company. But more than that, he helped establish the first design studio at Ford,” Ryan said. The base Model T doesn’t have much in the way of design. Lincoln is different. Edsel is famous for his quote. “Dad wants to make the most popular car, I want to make the best.”
However, the specific origins of the Design Line stem from a long personal relationship with the brand’s first president. Ryan said: “Edsel Ford had a relationship with Cartier and correspondence throughout the 1920s and 30s. “His personal cards and stationery were always ordered from Cartier.”
This long association was not formalized until the late 1960s. Ryan said: “I found in the product development records that, in 1967, Ford purchased Cartier for a special coupe. Cartier Continental 1970. According to internal documents, this package will include unique interior leather/fabric/vinyl surfaces and trims, modified dials and Cartier jewelry box, as well as gold plating on the dashboard. mausoleum, dial decorations, keys, C-pillar decorations, door monograms, and instrument panels.
“Think about that. A car that never has, that can happen,” Ryan said wittily.
Some of the Cartier magic became famous on Lincolns in the late 1960s. Cartier-branded dashboard watches traced back to the Lincoln Mark III in 1969, and continued to feature on the Mark IV prior to its debut. Design line.
The ultimate impetus for the series came from an even more unbelievable source.
“The idea of external designers involvement dates back to 1974 with a Mustang Ryan said. The concept involved Bill Blass designing clothing and accessories that would be sold alongside the newly launched Mustang II. Ryan added: “This idea has been a huge success, prompting management to consider how to expand it.
This idea went to the company president Lee Iacocca.
Ryan said: “We don’t have the stadium went to Iacocca, I just have a few things to say, Lee Iacocca approved, on this day, this particular program.
To give character to the line’s models and keep them fresh as they change year after year, designers or their representatives visit Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, every year, to participate Fabric festivals and decorative patterns, creative meetings. , approve the concept, and finish and eat. Paint and furniture color and annual transfer materials. Eventually, the process became a signpost, an event, in Motor City.
“The introduction of each new designer release has become something like a fashion line premiering in Paris or New York,” says Ryan.
However, the changes are sometimes less thrilling. “We have the product planning committee minutes, it’s as dry as toast. It reads only, CHEAPRepresentatives from XYX designers went to Dearborn and chose the color. The changes made include this, this and this. The level of humor and fun is difficult to distinguish.” Ryan said. “In one of the Bill Blass cars, he said he wanted to just add a red stripe on the back of the rearview mirror.”
The design line continued almost throughout the last part of the Mark coupe line-up, only to die out with the introduction of the last Mark VIII, in the early 1990s. Cheerfully, before it entered service, Gianni Versace became a celebrity of overwhelming luxury in Italy, having had a turning point in two years in the mid-1980s. But towards the end of Mark VII and the series, only Bill Blass was keeping the embers set. luminous meter.
Less clear is why exactly the show ended. “Now we don’t really know why it ended. We don’t have any documentation on that. I speculate that it just runs its route. Ryan said.
Other fashion brands – including Ermenegildo Zegna, Thom Browne and Zac Posen, John Varvatos, Isaac Mizrahiand KITH – in recent years, have experimented with car cross-branding. And it could be argued that AMC was ahead of Ford with Levi’s, Pierre Cardin and Gucci versions in the early 1970s. But sadly, the AMC is long gone and has never come close to hitting the 100-year mark.
Practicality has remained a hallmark of Lincoln throughout its centuries-long automotive reign, and one that fits with the brand’s underlying mythology. Edsel Ford was the one who brought Diego Rivera to Detroit to create murals of the Detroit Industry at the Detroit Institute of Art. He’s a designer, and a true art lover.
“Lincoln’s DNA has always been to the extent that a bunch of designers have had to match it, and in line with Edsel’s vision of what Lincoln was and can be,” says Ryan. “He’ll smile when he learns that his company has played the role.”
