NF500 / celebrity party

Fiat Group Automobiles UK Ltd has just opened a stylish new Flagship Store in London’s West End, and is marking the occasion with a design exhibition and celebrity party.

The showroom, located in the heart of the capital at Wigmore Street, London W1, features a cutting-edge interior of chrome and glass which provides a striking backdrop to the range of Fiat cars on display.

The company scored a PR coup in January when it launched the iconic new Fiat 500 in the UK by ‘flying’ it in one of the capsules on the London Eye. Now Fiat is working on establishing its new Flagship Store as a ‘cool’ place for car buyers and Fiat enthusiasts, as well as marketing it as a venue for corporate meetings, fashion shows, art and design exhibitions, and as a lavish set for film makers.

CNN (yes, that CNN) has already booked the Fiat Flagship Store for a high level seminar for the automotive world’s leading marketers and media opinion-formers. But not us, sadly.

Coinciding with a glittering celebrity party kicked off by the Italian Ambassador Giancarlo Aragona, the opening night exhibition, called Fiat Workpop 500, featured the work of 22 young designers who are competing to design an accessory for the Fiat 500 that will be chosen to go into production, and become available for general sale.

Top international designer Ron Arad, Head of the Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art, and chairman of leading Italian homeware group Guzzini, is heading the competition’s panel of judges.

Ron Arad attended the Fiat Flagship Store opening night (Tuesday 11 March) along with Fiat Centro Stile’s Roberto Giolito – the designer and ‘father’ of the Fiat 500 –Andrew Humberstone, managing director, Fiat Group Automobiles UK, Tony Dittli, managing director of the Flagship Store, and Elena Bernardelli, marketing director, Fiat Group Automobiles UK.

The Fiat 500 Workpop exhibition, our relationships with the London Design Museum, where the new Fiat 500 is being exhibited, and the London Design Festival, which we sponsor, reflects Fiat’s enthusiasm to interact with our style and design partners,

says Elena Bernardelli.