There are certain places you expect to find high fashion. Paris. Milan. New York. A tyre-smoking spinning arena in Brakpan is not traditionally one of them.
But nobody told Engen Lubricants and creative agency Boundless, who decided South Africa’s next big streetwear collection should come from a garage. And be made, at least partly, from things people throw away.
The result is Engen Xtreme Kouture, a ten-look collection inspired by South Africa’s mechanics, petrolheads, spinners and shop stewards. People who’ve been creating their own distinctive style for decades, while the fashion industry was apparently looking elsewhere. Created by Chicago-based South African artist, designer and activist Carlo Gibson, the collection debuted at Heat on the Street at KwaMagesh Spinning Arena in Ekurhuleni on 10 October.
Cars went sideways. Tyres were destroyed. Models emerged looking like they’d escaped from a particularly fashionable dystopia. Then a Highveld thunderstorm arrived. It was glorious.
Sustainability. But make it look completely insane.
The idea started with a question. What if, instead of telling people to recycle, we made something created from recycled materials desperately desirable?
Engen was brave enough to find out.
Gibson turned everything from repurposed lubricant packaging, bottle caps and corporate clothing to landfill scraps, discarded denim and a 1975 military jersey into a collection celebrating the ingenuity and attitude of South African motoring culture. Part streetwear. Part art. Part upcycling experiment. And nothing like the stuff hanging next to the air fresheners at your local spares shop.
But for Engen, sustainability goes beyond materials. It’s about sustaining the communities that sustain the brand.
And now, with an Ignition TV special telling the whole story and the collection heading into fashion magazines and onto television screens, the madness is reaching a much bigger audience.
Melissa Graham, Lubricants marketing manager at Engen Lubricants, explains: “When we talk about sustainability, we’re not only talking about recycling. We’re talking about the long-term future of the communities we serve. The mechanics, workshops, spinners and petrolheads are the people who give Engen Xtreme its purpose. We want to celebrate their ingenuity, support their skills and create opportunities for the next generation. Xtreme Kouture does all of that in a way nobody expected from a lubricant brand.”
True to that ambition, a young fashion design intern joined Gibson for the creation of the collection, while local seamstresses helped bring the garments to life.
The garage was always a fashion house. Nobody noticed.
For Gibson, the connection between car culture and fashion was obvious. People who customise cars are doing what designers do: turning something functional into a statement about who they are.
Carlo Gibson, Engen Xtreme Kouture designer, says: “Car culture has always had an incredible sense of style. The customisation, the details, the colours, the attitude. It’s all self-expression. I wanted to capture that spirit, not just make clothes that looked like they came from a garage. And challenge how we think about fashion. Fashion has spent years convincing us that newness is the point. Maybe the more radical idea now is longevity. Taking something that already exists and giving it a completely unexpected future.” The ten looks feature extraordinary detailing, interchangeable pieces, reversible garments and some decidedly unconventional materials.
Clothes made to be looked at. Then looked at again. Then inspected while asking, “Hang on. Is that actually an oil bottle?”
When worlds collide, wonderful things happen.
For Boundless, the project demonstrates what happens when a brand stops thinking about advertising and starts thinking about culture.
Because while a lubricant brand creating a couture collection sounds like an excellent way to get escorted out of a boardroom, there was a serious ambition underneath the insanity. To create something the people who inspired it would genuinely love.
Felix Kessel, executive creative director at Boundless, says: “There’s something wonderful about smashing worlds together that have absolutely no business being together. Fashion, maniac motorsport, sustainability, street culture and lubricants. On paper, it’s ridiculous. But that’s often where the best creativity lives. We didn’t want to be an advertising agency borrowing someone’s culture to make something cool. We wanted to make something the community would genuinely love. Something that celebrated their world and gave something back to it. And if we made the fashion industry wonder what the hell just happened, even better.”
From the spinning pit to the small screen.
The runway was only the beginning. A new Ignition TV special chronicles the entire gloriously unlikely journey, from Gibson’s creative process and the making of the garments to their spectacular debut at KwaMagesh. Taking viewers behind the seams and onto a runway where spinning cars present a fairly significant occupational hazard.
Meanwhile, a wider PR programme is taking Xtreme Kouture into fashion, lifestyle and entertainment media, including GQ South Africa and television appearances on shows like S3’s Expresso.
After all, making ten extraordinary outfits and showing them once would be a terrible waste. Which, considering the whole point of the project, would be particularly unfortunate.
Sustainability isn’t just about finding another use for old things. Sometimes it’s about finding an entirely new way of looking at them. And sometimes that requires ten models, an outrageous wardrobe and a few thousand horsepower.
Engen Xtreme Kouture.
About Boundless
Boundless is an agency composed entirely of experts, making the World’s Most-Loved Ideas™. We bring about change through Heartfelt Creativity, making work that isn’t just seen, but deeply felt. Creating lasting impacts on people, communities, and markets.
For further information or access to interviews and higher-resolution images, please contact: Paul Jackson, CEO – Boundless, paul@boundless.global
For more information, follow the Boundless social media channels or visit: Website: https://www.boundless.global/.
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Client
Engen
Melissa Graham - B2C sales marketing manager
Rah-hiyyah Suleman – Marketing project specialist
Agency
Boundless
Roanna Williams - CCO
Felix Kessel – ECD
Lara Bayley – Producer
Zimkhita Sokanyile - BUD
Mpho Metsing – Junior art director
Chelsea Fensham – Junior art director
Fashion:
Carlo Gibson - Fashion designer
Unathi Mgolombane - Fashion assistant
Riaan Hulley - Wardrobe stylist
Tim Gerges - Stills photographer
Renate Verwey & Bassie Seripe - Make-up artists
Event:
Event videography - Willem Coetzee (Ignition TV)
Event Host - Vic Pardal (So South)
BTS - Rogerio de Oliveira (RAD Productions)
