Engen Xtreme Kouture transformed the spinning arena at Heat on the Street at Kwamagesh Spinning Arena into a runway like no other. Even the thunder and rain couldn’t dampen the excitement as models revealed an incredible collection amid spinning cars, smoke and the unmistakable energy of South Africa’s motoring culture.
Created by Chicago-based South African artist, fashion designer and activist Carlo Gibson, the collection transforms repurposed lubricant materials, including bottle caps, bottles and recycled corporate wear, into bold fashion pieces inspired by mechanics, spinners, tuners and petrolheads.
“What we normally regard as waste can become a resource when imagination is applied to it,” said Melissa Graham, Engen Lubricants Marketing Manager.
“The aim wasn’t to make garage clothing look fashionable. It’s to acknowledge that the garage already has fashion, identity, and attitude of its own. The collection turns the spotlight back onto the communities that inspired it.”
For Gibson, the connection between automotive culture and fashion was natural.
“Car culture has always had fashion in it. The way people customise a car, the colours they choose, the stance, the wheels, the detailing, it is all self-expression,” says Gibson. “Street fashion works in much the same way. You take familiar things and make them unmistakably yours.”
An important part of the initiative was skills development. A fashion design intern worked alongside Gibson during the garment-creation process, supported by a local team of seamstresses contributed to manufacturing.
Set against the spectacle of spinning cars and the energy of the arena, Engen Xtreme Kouture forms part of Engen Xtreme’s Beyond Oil platform, exploring responsible recycling, sustainability and ways of creating value beyond the brand’s products.
“Engen Xtreme Kouture is about putting mechanics on the mood board, putting spinners in the fashion conversation, turning discarded materials into something desirable and investing in the skills and hands that make motoring culture possible,” adds Graham.
The collection will continue to feature at selected events, collaborations and activations during 2026 and 2027.
