Unveiled at Heat on the Street at Kwamagesh Spinning Arena, Engen Xtreme Kouture is a fashion collection inspired by South African car culture.
Although motor oil isn’t usually at the forefront of fashion culture, Engen wants to change that. The company has recently launched Engen Xtreme Kouture, a fashion collection inspired by the people who keep South Africa moving: the mechanics, spinners, and petrolheads who have created one of the country’s most distinctive motoring cultures. Bringing together two worlds that have long shared a strong connection – automotive culture and personal style – the collection was unveiled against the energy and spectacle of Heat on the Street, which took place at Kwamagesh Spinning Arena on 10 October 2026.
Engen commissioned Chicago-based South African artist, fashion designer and activist Carlo Gibson, who was selected not simply for his aesthetic, but for an approach to design that has long explored sustainability, recycling, upcycling and the cultural value of materials that others might overlook or discard. According to Gibson, there is no perfect answer to sustainable fashion … “But we can buy less, choose more consciously and expect our clothes to last longer. Fashion has spent years convincing us that newness is the point. Maybe the more radical idea now is longevity.”
The collection features a selection of garage-inspired garments made from repurposed lubricant materials, including bottle caps, bottles and recycled corporate wear. “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.”
“That connection became really interesting for Engen Xtreme Kouture because the people who inspired the collection – mechanics, spinners, tuners, shop stewards and petrolheads – already have their own visual language. We weren’t trying to put fashion onto that culture. We were trying to recognise the fashion that was already there and push it somewhere unexpected,” Gibson added. “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,” said Gibson. “Street fashion works in much the same way. You take familiar things and make them unmistakably yours.”
The project also incorporated skills development, bringing a fashion design intern into the team for the full creation phase. This provided an opportunity to work directly alongside Gibson and gain hands-on experience in bringing a major collection to life. The garments were also produced with the support of a local team of seamstresses, ensuring that the making of Engen Xtreme Kouture invested in local skills, craftsmanship and livelihoods, as well as local culture. “Sustainability has to work in the real world. That means looking at the entire ecosystem surrounding the brand: lubricant packaging, workshops, mechanics, communities, education, waste and the long-term sustainability of the independent automotive sector itself,” Graham explained.
“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,” said Graham. “Being proudly South African means recognising the communities that make this industry what it is.” This approach forms part of Engen Xtreme’s Beyond Oil platform, which explores responsible recycling, sustainability and ways of creating value beyond the brand’s products. For Engen Xtreme, the collection represents another way of investing in the people behind South Africa’s motoring culture.
“This is another exciting chapter for Engen Xtreme as we continue to champion South African motoring culture,” said Graham. “Engen is wholly committed to the motoring industry and to providing the highest-quality products to our customers and communities. Nothing embodies being proudly South African quite like Engen Xtreme lubricants, and there is no more natural synergy for the brand than the vibrant and performance-driven spinning community.”
