Kia collaborated with a fashion designer and a car customizer on some special Tellurides.
Texas tailgate parties don’t come more stylish: Of course there were cowboy hats, but these were designer cowboy hats, toted in see-through acrylic cases by sashaying supermodels. Yes, there were pickups, but these were classic flatbeds, painted in Texas State Fair colors, their beds offering elevated VIP viewing platforms. Coolers? Hundreds, bubblegum pink, doubling as makeshift seating, stocked with cold Texas beer. There were sausage burgers washed down with 90-proof whiskey distilled in Texas Hill Country and served in pink sippy cups.
Even with all that, perhaps the most unusual part of this extravaganza was a bespoke version of the new 2020 Kia Telluride SUV making its world debut on a fashion show runway.
Welcome to New York Fashion Week and the spring/summer 2019 collection from 34-year-old designer Brandon Maxwell. If you don’t know Maxwell’s name, you probably have heard of the ladies who like to wear his clothes, from Michelle Obama to Oprah, from Nicole Kidman to Jane Fonda to Lady Gaga. At this point you’re probably wondering, what’s the connection between Brandon Maxwell, Kia Motors America, the new Telluride and a New York fashion show spectacle. One word: Texas.
Looking for ideas for his upcoming 2019 collection, Maxwell and his design team left New York and decamped for five weeks to Marfa, the artsy East Texas desert hamlet where parts of the 1956 film “Giant,” with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, were shot.
While there, local officials told Maxwell about the Marfa schools’ underfunding problem — where, on average, students shared one computer between four, teaching aides were few and teachers had to use their own cars to travel more than 500 miles to Dallas or Austin for training.
“We went to Marfa for inspiration and ideas,” Maxwell said, “and I really believe that if you are going to take those things from a community, you have to give something back. When I left, I promised that I would do just that.”
Maxwell also had a personal Kia connection. “When growing up in Longview, West Texas, my mom drove me to school in her Kia Sedona minivan. I was the oldest of five, and we needed a minivan to fit us all in. It was maroon, and I remember thinking this was one cool minivan to go to school in. It had the most gorgeous tan leather interior.”
So the first thing Maxwell did after his Marfa retreat was call Saad Chehab, vice president, marketing communications, Kia Motors America, with a proposal. Kia would provide substantial funding to Marfa’s public school system and donate a Telluride SUV (1) for the teachers to use for their travels. In exchange, Kia would tie in with Maxwell’s 2019 collection reveal during New York Fashion Week, unveiling the bespoke Telluride.
“I have never done a partnership in my 10 collections and seven shows,” said Maxwell. “But this was such a perfect fit as Kia has a long history of philanthropic initiatives that support education. I am honored to collaborate with Kia Motors.”
Part of the arrangement was for Maxwell to help create a one-off Telluride, used to give a sneak peek of the new SUV before the production version debuted at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Kurt Kahl, senior design manager at Kia Design Center America in Irvine, California, and his design team flew to New York to meet Maxwell and hear his suggestions. “We learned about his story of growing up in a small town in Texas,” Kahl said, “about moving to New York and becoming a designer. He told us he really wanted to celebrate his Texas upbringing through the Telluride concept — for it to have a real Texas flavor.
“There’s always been a strong connection between Texas and trucks, so this gave us the opportunity to incorporate a more rugged overland look.
“This is where owners take their SUVs and increase off-road capability, raising them up for better ground clearance, adding big roof racks to carry camping gear and fitting snorkels to enable them to wade through deep water.”
At his New York studio, the Kia design team treated the project the way Maxwell designs a collection.
“They came to New York and brought in references and images and mock-ups,” said Maxwell. “They had color swatches and paint chips, leather samples and wood; that is exactly how I start a collection and present what I’m thinking to my team.”
Maxwell finally saw the finished Telluride concept, in the metal, the day before his fashion show, inside the Classic Car Club Manhattan’s cavernous warehouse-like building on New York’s Pier 76.
“It was exactly what I wanted. I went home that night thinking that was one beautiful SUV. I just love the black rims, the green paint and all the details.”
With its tough-truck look, the custom Telluride fit perfectly with Maxwell’s Texas tailgate theme. As more than 400 invited guests from the fashion world poured through the doors, many stopped to take a closer look. When they found out it was making its global debut, cameras flashed, smartphones buzzed and the internet went wild.
“I would never be where I am without the support of others and my own education,” Maxwell said. “Together with Kia, we hope to afford others the opportunity to realize their full potential and chase their dreams.”
RANCH READY
Four months before the official unveiling, Kia’s largest and most refined SUV got a little Texas attitude, with Brandon Maxwell’s help.
Call it a concept or a show car for a fashion show, but the bold deep green Telluride designed and built for Brandon Maxwell’s New York Fashion Week show was a true one-off.
Based on the production 2020 Telluride, it was designed and put together at Kia Design Center America (KDCA) in Irvine, California, incorporating ideas from the Texas-born fashion designer.
“We really wanted to enhance the ruggedness and give it a true Texas flavor. It’s the kind of truck that would look perfect on a Texas ranch,” explained KDCA design manager Kurt Kahl, who led the team creating the show car.
If that deep green looks familiar, it’s because it was the same shade applied to Kia’s original Telluride concept car shown at the 2016 North American International Auto Show.
Custom front and rear bumpers, heavy-duty skid plates and sidestep sills heighten the rugged look, along with the snorkel on the passenger-side windshield pillar. Custom 20-inch, black-painted alloys shod with deep-grooved off-road 265/50R-section tires keep the Telluride going when the going gets tough. A spare is mounted to a specially designed carrier on the rear hatch. On the roof, there’s a special aluminum luggage rack with custom wood slats, reached via an outside ladder.
Inside, saddle-inspired, double-stitched leather adds to the Texas ranch look and is also used to decorate the door handles and cover the door mirrors. Open the door, slide inside and saddle-like leather with contrast double stitching covers the entire dash. Look closely and you see a Texas star with a B-for-Brandon logo in the middle, branded into the leather on the passenger side. Matte-finished wood, looking almost like driftwood, is used on the dash and door tops, balancing ruggedness with sophistication.
“We really did have a lot of fun building this one-off Telluride,” said Kahl. “And it was fascinating working with a designer like Brandon Maxwell, who comes from a completely different field than automotive, and hearing where his inspirations came from.”
After using New York Fashion Week to showcase the Telluride’s style, KIA next turned to Las Vegas’ giant Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show. The idea was to show the SUV’s more rugged off-road capabilities. Thinking it needed to make a big impression, Kia took over a SEMA parking lot and converted it into an off-road track (more on that in a minute) and built four modified Tellurides to give rides to visitors.
Kia partnered with San Dimas, California-based LGE-CTS Motorsports to create the modified Tellurides, each with its own distinctive design and style. They all had stock the 3.8-liter, 291-hp V6 engine, eight-speed automatic transmission and available electronic all-wheel-drive system. (1) They also all featured the production, leather-trimmed interior to showcase the Telluride’s exquisite materials and craftsmanship.
The rest, however, was all changed.
“These weren’t display cars that would be sitting on a show stand,” said Theresa Contreras, a partner at LGE-CTS and a driving force behind the modified Tellurides. “We were building essentially rally cars that would be jumping and bouncing around for four days, seven hours a day. That was the challenge.”
To ensure each Telluride would get air over jumps, tackle the grueling articulation test and deal with the rutted sand box, the 20-person-strong LGE-CTS team worked with specialists to develop a suspension system able to handle the off-road track’s demands.
So, up front, they installed heavy-duty KW Motorsport long-travel MacPherson struts with remote reservoirs, three-way adjustable damping and King hydraulic bump stops. They also added substantial shock tower reinforcements. In the rear, they installed a KW Motorsport inverted shaft; long-travel World Rally Championship-spec shocks mounted to a fabricated multilink suspension, with longer trailing arms; and the King bump stops.
For more ground clearance and increased grip, Contreras specified off-road racer-style Black Rhino alloys shod with aggressive-tread 32-inch Milestar Mud Terrain tires. To make each Telluride sound throatier, the V6s were given straight-pipe exhausts.
Kia’s original idea was to build four identical SEMA Tellurides, each painted the same dark green as the Brandon Maxwell-designed Telluride, but the plan changed. Instead, like action superheroes you see in movies, Kia gave each Telluride a unique color, features and name.
For example, the Telluride Cadet Leader came with matte military green and black paint, a huge front brush guard and underbody skid plate, tubular rear bumper and rear skid plate, and hood-mounted LED spotlights. The Telluride Desert Drifter featured Desert Storm-style tan and black paint, hood-mounted RotopaX storage containers, heavy-duty brush guards and a full-size roof rack with roof-mounted LED light bar. The Telluride Baja Glider had an all-black paint scheme, even higher ground clearance, aggressive front and rear skid plates, and night-piercing LED light bars for the roof and front end. The Telluride Horizon Roamer had bright orange paint, all-black hood, custom front brush guard, roof-mounted cargo rack with integrated LED light bar and a snorkel for deep-water fording.
Next, Kia needed an off-road course.
“The challenge for us was that the parking lot we were using to create the Kia Torque Track was, during the daytime hours before the show, exactly that: a parking lot,” explained Andrew Wilhelm, track coordinator.
So the night before the show, the lot was cleared and convoys of 18-wheelers descended. Cranes positioned concrete barriers to define the course, and 130 huge, earth-carrying trucks dumped dirt in towering mounds while earth movers shaped the hills and jump, as well as the sand box and water splash.
“Incredibly, it was all completed in just 12 hours,” said Wilhelm. “We had a team of over 60 work through the night to pull it together. It was an amazing, highly coordinated feat.”
By 10 a.m. on the show’s first day, showgoers were already lined up for their Telluride thrill ride. They were handed a race helmet, guided three at a time into one of the four Tellurides and, with a pro driver behind the wheel, taken on the six-minute Kia Torque Track experience.
Pro racer Collete Davis, the driver in Kia’s recent 2019 Forte TV ads seen leaping a production Forte over a Forte race car, was among the first to try the track—from behind the wheel.
“This course is pretty amazing,” said Davis. “It’s such a great way to showcase these awesome new custom Tellurides. This was my first drive in one, and I have to say, it’s a blast. I think the production version is really going to stand out in the marketplace.”
After the four days, hundreds of visitors had experienced the Telluride on the track, posted thousands of photos and videos, and shared their experiences on social media.
“At the New York Fashion Week, people asked, ‘Why is Kia here?’” said Chehab. “At SEMA, people were asking the same thing. It’s because we love to be the disruptor in the auto industry. We love to shake things up. Events like these are changing everyone’s perception of the company and our vehicles.”
DISCLAIMER: 1. This was a closed course with professional drivers. Do NOT attempt. 2020 Telluride prototype modified for off-road exhibition; modified vehicle NOT for sale. No system, no matter how advanced, can compensate for all driver error and/or driving conditions. Always drive safely.
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