Woodcliff Lake, NJ – September 8, 2021… BMW of North America returns as the Official Automotive Partner of New York Fashion Week: The Shows for the Spring/Summer ’22 season in New York City, taking place from September 8 to September 13, 2021. In this latest chapter of their partnership, BMW and New York Fashion Week producer IMG will join forces to explore the future of fashion, culture and design. The partnership will include a custom content series featuring BMW’s first-ever, all-electric iX sports activity vehicle with renowned British designer Christian Cowan and Victor Cruz, fashion insider and New York Giants alum.
 
The content will celebrate both the fashion and automotive industries’ commitment to style, innovation and functional, sustainable luxury. BMW will also host “The Future of Fashion and Luxury – Altuzarra’s Return to NYFW” panel discussion featuring luxury women's ready-to-wear designer Joseph Altuzarra in conversation with Tiffany Reid, vice president of fashion at Bustle Media Group.  
 
“With a focus on premium quality, innovation and sustainability, New York Fashion Week provides a great platform on which to showcase our all new fully electric, highly sustainable BMW iX Sports Activity Vehicle before it arrives in the U.S. early next year,” said Uwe Dreher, vice president of marketing, BMW of North America. 
 
Content Series: “The Ultimate Design Evolution”
A content series entitled “The Ultimate Design Evolution” will showcase the intersection of the fashion and automotive industries as both experience a period of revolutionary change. The fashion industry’s turn away from trend-focused “fast fashion” products and toward well-made, long-lasting staples that combine style and function mirrors BMW’s clear focus on sustainability, innovation and unique design for the future. Featuring two notable talent within the series, the content will illustrate the parallels in both industries, as consumers look for fashion pieces that feature both the style, function and quality that they expect from their vehicles. Talent featured within the content series includes:

• Christian Cowan – The womenswear designer known for dazzling runway shows, red carpet pieces and celebrity partnerships, Cowan delivers both luxury and function. Cowan is working toward lessening the gap between high fashion and everyday clothing by reinventing unique ready-wear garments that break boundaries.
• Victor Cruz - former NFL star and Super Bowl champion, Cruz made the pivot from football to fashion in 2018. Being named the most fashionable athlete by Sports Illustrated in 2016, he retired from the NFL and went on to pursue a diverse career including launching a fashion label and joining E! News as a footwear and fashion correspondent.

Both Cruz’s and Cowan’s similarly forward-thinking mindsets of the fashion industry make them a perfect partner for this content series, featuring them alongside the first-ever, all-electric BMW iX to celebrate the brand’s shared values of passion and forward progress. The content series will utilize both the BMW iX and the two notable gentlemen to showcase what happens when luxury becomes intuitive, enduring and revolutionary.
 
“The Future of Fashion and Luxury – Altuzarra’s Return to NYFW” Panel Discussion
After four years abroad, designer Joseph Altuzarra is making his long-awaited return to New York Fashion Week: The Shows. Joined by longtime NYFW collaborator and vice president of fashion at Bustle Media Group, Tiffany Reid, Altuzarra will discuss the road home, the future of fashion, how his French-American-Chinese background influences his work, and how he has evolved his luxury designer brand for the global marketplace.

Content will be shared across BMW USA’s social media channels, such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
 
 
 
BMW Group in the United States.
BMW of North America, LLC was established 50 years ago to support the sales, marketing and distribution of BMW automobiles and motorcycles in the U.S. In 1993 BMW Group Financial Services NA, LLC was founded, and one year later BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC began assembling vehicles in South Carolina. In 2002 and 2003, BMW Group established MINI USA, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC relaunching two iconic brands and rounding out its product portfolio.

Today, the BMW Group has a nationwide corporate footprint in the U.S. which consists of nearly 30 locations in 12 different states. Beyond the National Sales Company and Financial Services headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, its manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and numerous other operational facilities, BMW Group in the U.S. also includes Designworks, a strategic design consultancy in Santa Monica, CA, BMW Group Technology Office USA, a technology research and development center in Silicon Valley, and BMW i Ventures, a venture capital fund, also in Silicon Valley.

BMW Group Plant Spartanburg is the largest single BMW production facility in the world, and the global center of competence for BMW Sports Activity Vehicles including the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM. The plant assembles more than 1,500 vehicles each day, and up to 450,000 annually. Since 1994, Plant Spartanburg has assembled nearly 7 million BMW vehicles in the U.S.

The BMW Group sales organization in the U.S. is represented through a network of 350 BMW retailers, 147 BMW motorcycle retailers, 104 MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. The company’s activities provide and support over 120,000 jobs across the U.S. and contribute more than 43.3 billion to the U.S. economy annually.

Journalist note: Information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com, www.miniusanews.com and www.press.bmwna.com