Videos whirred and cameras clicked when Joseph Corre drove the Life Ball Mini 2008 over the red carpet outside Vienna's City Hall in front of 40,000 spectators. Escorted by four models in British police uniforms, and with Sophie Ellis Bextor in the passenger seat, the arrival of the Life Ball Mini 2008 marked the start of the fantastic opening show.
The Life Ball Mini is traditionally created by the fashion designer responsible for the fashion show in the opening event - and in 2008, this was the British lingerie label Agent Provocateur. This year, the new Mini Cooper Clubman was selected as the basis for this exclusive, unique design. "The new shape is so reminiscent of the old Mini vans the British police used to drive that we were immediately inspired to create an Agent Provocateur styled interior that you really would want to get arrested in!
"A classic yet stylized exterior in Agent Provocateur signature pink and black colors complete with pink flashing light and inside the most seductive prison cell with hand to wall cuffs and blacked out windows and iron bars", says Agent Provocateur founder Joseph Corre.
The unique - and escape-proof - Life Ball Mini will was auctioned on eBay (as happens each year) when Mini and Agent Provocateur fans throughout the world had the opportunity for ten days to buy this unique car and do something for charity. The proceeds from the auction will be donated, as always, to Life Ball and to projects aimed at combating HIV/AIDS.
To date, the auction of the "Life Ball Minis" - transformed by such famous fashion icons as Diesel, Missoni, Ferr and Versace - have raised a total of 260,000."By supporting Vienna's Life Ball, the Mini brand is going its own way and making its own very individual contribution to the fight against this auto-immune disease", says Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Head of Brand Communication MINI, commenting on the brand's involvement here. "The Life Ball brings the pandemic back into the public's awareness each year in a very emotional way, and the auction of each uniquely designed MINI produces a major financial contribution to projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS."
Half of the proceeds will be donated to national projects in Austria. The other half will be used to benefit international projects, with allocation of funds regulated by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).