diseno-art.com

DSQUARED², a Canadian fashion company I’d never heard of until earlier today, have just debuted their butchered customised MINI Cooper S which will be auctioned off at the 2011 Life Ball in Vienna to raise money for combating HIV/AIDS. It’s all for a good cause, but even if it had been painted in dog food (after letting it go through the dog)  it would still raise a ton of money for the charity. This people is what happens when you let two fashion designers have a go at improving a car.

MINI have supported the Life Ball event for the past 11 years. Each year MINI bring a highly modified car to the event, and then let hundreds of ludicrously wealthy people try to outbid each other in order to snag themselves the keys. Impressively, the Life Ball MINI’s have generated over 500,000 Euros ($701,500) for the charity. That means on average the MINI’s are going for 45,500 Euros – about 20,000 Euros ($28,000) more than the standard car would.

The designers of DSQUARED, twin-brothers Dean and Dan Caten, have tried to “evoke a sense of adventure” in their MINI Cooper S. They’ve done this by giving the car a severe identity crisis. No longer is it a well balanced, nice-handling hatch back. Instead it’s a hatchback with some knobbly tires, totally pointless bull-bars, a bunch of rally lights, a full-size trunk-mounted spare wheel, and garish graphics.

According to the Catens; “Our MINI ‘Red Mudder’ is 100 per cent DSQUARED².” That it may be. But it’s also 100 per cent ruined. Still. It’s job is no longer to be a quality small car. If it sacrifices it’s sense of decency in support of a good cause then it was worth it. Just.