sass & bide get their motors running with Range Rover

prestige way

Carla Zampatti once customised a Ford Laser, Collette Dinnigan has had a longstanding relationship with Audi and of course Australian Fashion Week once partnered with Mercedes Benz. Behold Australia's latest fashionable automobile ambassadors: sass & bide's Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke, who have just hooked up with British luxury marque Range Rover, coincidentally in the same month that Range Rover celebrates its 40th anniversary. And while a liaison with Queen Elizabeth II's preferred wheels option - a car that is fondly referred to in Melbourne circles as the "Toorak Taxi" - might seem a little establishment for this funky downtown fashion brand, whose hero products are sprayed-on jeans and leggings, Middleton and Clarke are for the moment spruiking the virtues of the newer, slightly more compact Range Rover Sport. According to the sass & bide HQ, Middleton has the keys to a white one, while Clarke's is black. Although British-born, Range Rover was acquired by India's Tata Motors for US$2.5billion in 2008, along with its Land Rover parent and Jaguar, and may soon shift manufacturing to China.

Zambesi's speed racer

angie tinker


Frockwriter mentioned that Zambesi’s Neville Findlay is a rev head. Here’s a shot of the co-founder of the iconic Kiwi fashion label – which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – that was just snapped at the Taupo Motorsport Park for today's second and final round of the 2009 North Island Endurance Series, a four-hour race. Findlay qualified fifth. As you can see, Findlay has upgraded from his brother’s Datsun 260Z, that he raced in March, to what we understand is a very rare BMW ZM coupe. We also have it on good authority that Findlay and his wife/business partner and the head Zambesi designer, Liz Findlay, are making a real weekend of it – having booked the honeymoon suite at Lake Taupo’s luxury motor lodge Chantilly’s. Can a Zambesi-customised car be far away?