Knitted Elegance for the Concept A-Class
Exclusive Fabric for Mercedes-Benz Concept Model / STRÄHLE + HESS Wraps Instrument Panel and Center Console.
Althengstett / Berlin (k-w). Everyone gets together at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin: designers, opinion makers, and celebrities with a passion for fashion. This year, in addition to haute couture, the public eye was on the new Mercedes-Benz Concept A-Class. The eyecatchers in the interior of this statement concept car are the instrument panel and the center console with their revolutionary surface treatment in translucent special textiles, created by the designers at STRÄHLE + HESS.
At the end of the Fashion Week across from the Brandenburg Gate, all agreed: the German premiere of the Concept A-Class was just as great a success as the world premiere a few weeks earlier in Shanghai. Mercedes-Benz has given the public a glimpse into the future, into the next generation of the A-Class. The dynamic lines and form of the concept car are echoed in the interior, which features many unconventional details and natural as well as state-of-the-art high-tech materials.
With the exclusive customized “translucent silver ray of light”, the textile specialists in Atlhengstett (County of Calw, Germany) knitted a highly elastic fabric on a large circular knitting machine according to the exact specifications of Mercedes-Benz designers. The metallic shimmer of the thread lends a technical flair to the interior of the concept car. The twin product, simultaneously sent on tour to roadshows throughout the world, has an even more futuristic appearance with its aluminum-steamed “translucent aluminum ray of light“.
Supermodel Jessica Stam, in a dream dress by Giles Deacon, presented the Concept A-Class and emphasized the visionary treatment of form in the car, which wakes associations of the interplay of wind and waves. The shimmering translucent fabrics were also used for the backdrop at the presentation in Berlin, a colorfully illuminated cocoon.
With this exceptional project, STRÄHLE + HESS as an innovative supplier has once again demonstrated that it can realize even the most sophisticated technical requests for textiles and interiors flexibly and quickly thanks to its fresh ideas, high-performance machines, and the team of dedicated employees. “This wonderful commission highlights anew our competence in fabricating special textiles,“ says the product manager Petra Schöllkopf full of enthusiasm over the successful German premiere in Berlin, to which she was personally invited by Mercedes-Benz.
And beyond the automotive field, there has been general acclaim for the textile specialists from the northern Black Forest and their commitment to developing convincing solutions. Under the slogan “Texperience“, STRÄHLE + HESS has developed another mainstay as a highly innovative enterprise. This also reflects 80 years’ experience of company employees. The cooperation with Mercedes-Benz on the Concept A-Class demonstrates impressively that textiles are increasingly in demand as a material for solving technical challenges.