Glittering movie premieres, stars gracing the red carpet, and a high-performance vehicle that looks like nothing else: this is the Cannes Film Festival. Yesterday, it hosted the world premiere of the BMW XM Mystique Allure.
This one-off creation is based on the first high-performance sports car from BMW M GmbH powered by the M HYBRID drive system. Blending progressive luxury with extravagant looks, it is inspired by British supermodel #Naomi Campbell. Designed using exclusive materials from the world of haute couture, it features a unique soundtrack devised in cooperation with film score composer Hans Zimmer.
The BMW XM Mystique Allure is the latest product of the collaboration between BMW and Naomi Campbell. The partnership took its first steps last year with the “Dare to be You” launch campaign for the BMW XM, which emphasizes the confidence to be yourself and go your own way.
The 77th Cannes Film Festival was the ideal setting for the world premiere of the BMW XM Mystique Allure. Against the stunning backdrop of the French portside resort, Naomi Campbell presented the one-of-a-kind creation inspired by her to an audience of selected guests before making her way in the car to the red carpet outside the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.
“Witnessing BMW’s vision for the BMW XM Mystique Allure come to life has been truly incredible,” says Campbell. “I feel deeply honored to have sparked the inspiration for their first-ever high-fashion show car, which stands as a unique masterpiece in every aspect.”
This is the third year in succession that BMW has stepped up as the Official Automotive Partner of the Cannes Film Festival. It will lay on an exclusive shuttle service of more than 200 vehicles – among them the all-electric BMW i7, BMW iX, and BMW i5, and the plug-in hybrid BMW XM – to give participants and guests at the event the experience of locally emission-free premium mobility.
First BMW designed with high-fashion materials.
The BMW XM Mystique Allure is the first vehicle in the brand’s history to be designed using materials from the high fashion industry. This unusual tie-up showcases the BMW XM in a whole new light: expressive, avant-garde, stylish, and luxurious in equal measure.
Inspired by Naomi’s favorite color, the vehicle’s exterior boasts a deeply saturated ultramarine shade, accentuated by a lustrous matte finish. A contemporary translation of high-fashion materials from luxury textile manufacturers, the design seamlessly brings the inside to the outside, featuring rich velvet and shimmering Frozen metallic sequins casting hues ranging from intense violet to deep ultramarine.
The iridescent surfaces were created with precise handcraftsmanship and a fine eye for detail. They take their cues from the eye-catching geometric forms of the BMW XM and bring a special visual richness to the car’s extrovert aesthetic. The design of the BMW XM Mystique Allure provides a meeting point for high performance and haute couture, painting a unique picture of progressive luxury that continues into the interior. All of the surfaces inside the car, including the M Lounge in the rear, are covered in purple velvet.
The bold appearance of the BMW XM Mystique Allure is complemented by an acoustic character also very much its own. At its heart is a bespoke adaptation of the BMW IconicSounds Electric developed as part of the collaboration between BMW Group Sound Design and film score composer Hans Zimmer.
The driving track created for the Naomi Campbell-inspired one-off projects the supreme confidence of the car’s exterior design onto the soundscape of locally emission-free driving. In the M HYBRID drive system’s all-electric operating mode, every movement of the accelerator is accompanied by an emotionally engaging sound that authentically represents the car’s outstanding performance and magnetic visual allure.
The BMW XM is the first model since the legendary BMW M1 to be conceived solely as a standalone high-performance car from BMW M GmbH. It blends dynamic potency with innovative luxury and an enticingly extravagant design composed of muscular proportions and powerful contours. Two-piece split headlight units, Iconic Glow contour lighting for the BMW kidney grille, accent bands along the sides of the car, light-alloy wheels up to 23 inches in size, and the vertically stacked and hexagonally formed pairs of exhaust tailpipes integrated into the rear apron ensure the exterior of the XM has an inimitable visual presence.
The BMW XM is also breaking new ground with its M HYBRID system, which has made the XM the first high-performance car from BMW M GmbH to feature an electrified drive system. In BMW XM Label Red form (electric power and petrol consumption – weighted, combined: 33.5 kWh/100 km and 2.0 l/100 km [141.2 mpg imp]; CO2 emissions – weighted, combined: 45 g/km [WLTP]; fuel consumption with discharged battery: 12.9 l/100 km [21.9 mpg imp] as per WLTP; CO2 classes: with discharged battery G; weighted, combined B), the plug-in hybrid model – with its maximum output of 550 kW/748 hp – is also the most powerful series-produced, road-legal car yet produced by BMW M GmbH.
