Arthur Kar is among the most notable frontier influencers and avant-gardists in today’s automotive world. Not only has he built a thriving collector-car dealership, but he’s also founded an internationally successful fashion label: L’Art de L’Automobile. And his 1990s street-style clothes and accessories are hot property right now, from Copenhagen to Tokyo. To mark Paris Fashion Week, Kar joined his two passions and opened a pop-up petrol station for two days. The prototype of a modernist prefabricated petrol station designed by the French architect Jean Prouvé for the oil company Mobiloil Socony-Vacuum in 1953 served as the primary inspiration. Incidentally, Prouvé also designed dealerships for Citroën in Lyon and Paris. 

Petrol wasn’t offered at the L’Art de L’Automobile service station, but the ‘It Crowd’ was able to recharge before the sprint to the next show with a mysterious petroleum soup, matching ‘Out of Gasoline’ shirts, and now sold-out logo tape for turning scratched sports car wheels into street art. Guests included Louis Vuitton’s design director Virgil Abloh as well as other fashion personalities including Don C, Heron Preston, Anwar Carrots, Poggy, and artist Daniel Arsham. In the meantime, the petrol station has sadly closed. Then again, if this is the first you’ve heard about it, you shouldn’t count yourself as a true digitally-connected fashionista anyway. Follow L’Art de L’Automobile on Instagram if you’d like to attend the next pop-up, be it in Paris or Los Angeles. 

Photos: L’Art de L’Automobile