Tommy Hilfiger-Customized 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Up for Auction
By PHIL PATTON
The designer Tommy Hilfiger customized this 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, which is up for auction online at Charitybuzz.com.
As part of a charity fund-raiser to celebrate the centennial of the fashion industry periodical Women’s Wear Daily, the designer Tommy Hilfiger has donated a personally customized 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer to be auctioned for charity.
Outside, it wears wood grain side panels. Inside are seats covered in Mr. Hilfiger’s signature argyle plaid, of navy blue inflected with red. The steering wheel continues the color combination: it is wrapped in blue cowhide with red stitching. The floor mats are of red sisal.
The designer Tommy Hilfiger.
The exterior is accented with a “Tommy Hilfiger 25th Anniversary” pinstripe. Mr. Hilfiger founded the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation in 1984 and by 2004 had sales of nearly $2 billion. He won the Council of Fashion Designers of America award as Menswear Designer of the Year in 1997. Markings include “Tommy Hilfiger for WWD 100th” rendered on the hood in vinyl, golden H’s on the front doors and a Tommy Hilfiger logo on the tailgate.
The Grand Wagoneer is one of the quiet landmarks of American automobile evolution — a forerunner of the S.U.V. and an embodiment of lifestyle aspirations of the sort Mr. Hilfiger’s clothing and other designs also feed.
The vehicle is native to high-end country and coastal settings in the Northeast. Rebuilt models remain favorites on Nantucket, for instance.
Introduced as the Jeep Wagoneer in 1963 and later named the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, it continued to be produced on the same platform, with minor mechanical changes for 28 years.
The original Wagoneer was ahead of its time. It foreshadowed the S.U.V. by combining a body on frame construction borrowed from a pickup truck with a comfortable if not outright luxurious interior. It embodied the vision of designer Brook Stevens of how to combine Jeep ruggedness with comfort and class. The name Wagoneer suggested the reassuring persona of a wagon train master in a film. Its wood patterned walls evoked traditional values.
Even after production ended in 1991, sales continued. Leon Miller, a former cattleman and owner of several Wagoneers, began selling rebuilt models. Mr. Miller, based in Kerrville, Tex., buys and rehabs models with 70,000 or fewer miles, then sells them for around $25,000 or $30,000, depending on age and condition. He has sold more than a thousand of them over the years, including several to Mr. Hilfiger.
The Wagoneer still appeals to designers, as to owners, for its honest lines and solid body. Its upright front end conveys a sense of leaning forward, like a dog straining on a leash. Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s head of design, said that the rear of the new 2011 Grand Cherokee was influenced by the early Wagoneers.
The wood-sided Wagoneer also recalls the green 1948 Ford woody wagon owned by Ralph Lauren, another fashion designer taken with the life of the landed gentry. The Lauren car is all about “the polo set” (as advertising boasted in the day), while Mr. Hilfiger’s vehicle continues the story of weekends in the country or beach house and trips to pick up guests at the railroad station or ferry landing.
The online auction for the Women’s Wear Daily anniversary is being conducted by the luxury charity auction site Charitybuzz. The sale of Mr. Hilfiger’s vehicle will benefit Millenium Promise, a nonprofit that aims “to end extreme poverty in our lifetime.” Bidding runs through Nov. 18.
Credit: The New York Times
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