by Chris Jefferies
Renowned for years as the most glamorous of caravans, Airstream has been a household name for more than 70 years, and now a Californian design team has found a new use for the original King of the Road.
The Aetherstream is the brainchild of former film producers Jonah Smith and Palmer West, who came up with the idea as a more affordable way of taking their outdoor clothing line Aether Apparel across the US on a coast-to-coast tour.
After its public debut last month, the Aetherstream garnered widespread interest from both fashion and design gurus such as GQ and Inhabitat, but this project also gives ambitious caravanners plenty to admire.
Stripped to the bare bones
Jonah and Palmer have been long-time admirers of Airstream caravans, but when they finally purchased their own version of the classic tourer they were thoroughly ruthless in stripping out the interior – after all, they wanted to build a shop on wheels, instead of a home on wheels.
With the help of French designer Thierry Gaugain, the Aether team came up with the idea for a pop-up shop that incorporated display cabinets, a changing room, a wooden worktop in the centre and a real working fireplace.
A sizeable shell was needed to contain all these bold ideas, so the Airstream that was chosen was the gigantic PanAmerica triple-axle model, which measures 34 feet from nose-to-tail.
The boys then needed a renovation expert to take on the job of ripping out the interior, and so they turned to Rod Beltran at D&G Trailer.
Convincing an Airstream lover to gut out all the insides of such an antique was a tricky process and Rod’s initial reaction was less than enthusiastic: “You want to do what? Take it all out? What, like, all of it?”
Eventually, he reluctantly agreed and the team set about refitting the floorboards with reclaimed oaked panels, before adding Parisian light fittings and partly respraying the exterior in matte black with Aether decals.
A mobile man cave
Once the basics had been taken care of, the Aether Apparal team set about making their new tourer unique, with a custom-designed leather couch in the nose end and a real working fireplace.
The latter proved to be a real challenge, with American Homeland Security taking exception to their wood-burning stove, which had to be imported from Canada.
With everything in place, the team were delighted with the finished look, triumphantly describing it as “the ultimate guy’s workshop, an adventure lab on wheels, a mobile man cave.”
After several weeks of hard work, the Aetherstream finally opened its doors to the people of Los Angeles on October 8th.
Since then, the team have moved on to New York City, with the help of a custom-painted Land Rover Defender working as their sturdy towcar (and bringing a touch of British class to the whole project).
Given its enormous size, it’s unlikely we’ll see the Aetherstream on British roads any time soon, but it just goes to show what you can achieve with a classic caravan, a few licks of paint and plenty of ambition.
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