Range Rover Sets Trends for 2026
Arriving late in the calendar year, the annual showcase of collectable furniture and functional art that is Design Miami is a good place — perhaps the best place — to look if you want a preview of next year’s design trends.
The show was overflowing with pieces that, when taken together, reflected a turn away from gaudy, gilded maximalism towards something more restrained. It wasn’t exactly minimalism that was on display across the show, but rather a more restrained, human-centered approach to design.
Speaking of human, there also seemed to be a push against superficial AI-perfection and a focus on process-driven pieces, like the mesmerizing furniture and lighting Dirk van der Kooij crafts out of recycled plastic, or Constanza Vallese’s work for Fendi. As important as the end product is the knowledge that there was a human on the other side of it, making something with intent.
Expect to see both of those trends proliferate across all areas of design, fashion — and automotive — worlds in 2026, especially if Range Rover has anything to say about it.
As you might expect, the British marque’s contribution to this most recent Design Miami will surely set the trend for automotive design in 2026. Range Rover brought the monochrome monolith, the Range Rover SV Black, to Design Miami for its North American debut. It’s unusual to see any car make a debut at the event — rather than some big auto show — but the SV Black is not a usual car. It’s the latest addition to the Range Rover’s flagship SV stable, one that perfectly blends the emerging design trends seen across the show, offering a mix of restrained luxury and human artistry.
The “dipped in black” look of the new SV strips back the Range Rover to its most essential, powerful, elegant and most imposing self. (That it looks so good wearing all-black is yet another testament to the beauty and timeless appeal of the current Range Rover’s design.) Everything is black, with subtle variations in texture and sheen: the grille finished in polished Gloss Black mesh, the black ceramic SV roundel on the trunk, the 23-inch wheels in a Gloss Black finish, the buttery soft Ebony leather, black birch wood and “Moonlight Chrome.” Even the Range Rover script on the blacked out brake calipers featuring darker branding for the first time. It certainly nails the feeling of pared back without being plain.
Every finish, every texture, every material feels like a choice. It’s intentional, and the farthest thing in the world from AI-slop. Settling into the cabin it’s evident this space was curated by people who care, people with taste.
Since this was Design Miami, Range Rover wasn’t about to put its new car on a rotating plinth and call it a day (as most manufacturers would’ve done at any old car show). Working with the Design Miami team, Range Rover created an exhibition space featuring a series of “dipped in black” designer objects: a vase, water pitcher, sculpture, and Mies van der Rohe’s famous Pavilion daybed in black leather. They were illuminated in the room by a horizontal strip of light and the whole space was inspired by the Seagram Building in New York, one of van der Rohe’s modernist masterpieces.
As the company explained, the Seagram Building is, “a modernist icon that speaks to the same principles of reductionism and refinement as the Range Rover brand.”
By this point it may be obvious to you already, but Range Rover is not like other car companies. The British marque has arguably perfected the luxury SUV, and now — with these SV curations and Bespoke Service offerings — Range Rover is working on blurring the boundaries between automobiles and functional art, furniture and architecture. The more we see, the more we’re convinced.
No surprise then: Range Rover is ahead of the curve. Again.
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