Kith's one-off BMW X5 is a fashion project and a sneak peek at the next X5 at once
A streetwear brand just showed you the next BMW X5 before BMW did
Every so often a collaboration accidentally becomes bigger news than intended. Kith's new one-of-one BMW X5 is meant to be a stylish show car, a fashion brand flexing its taste on four wheels. But look closer and it is something more interesting: this is a 2027 model, a preview of the fifth-generation X5 that BMW has not fully unveiled yet. In other words, a clothing label has just given us an early look at one of the brand's most important cars.
The present: a one-off next-gen X5
The star of the reveal is the 2027 BMW X5 by Kith, a one-of-one built on the incoming, fifth-generation X5, known internally as the G65. It is powered by an updated version of BMW's familiar B58 turbocharged inline-six, now with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system, so mechanically it is very much a modern BMW rather than a wild engineering experiment. What makes it special is everything around that: this is effectively a rolling teaser of the next X5, dressed by Kith rather than by BMW's marketing department.
A colour made just for it
The finish is the headline detail. The car wears Frozen Titanium Silver, a matt shade developed specifically for this build and not offered on the standard production X5. It is a deliberate, modern reinterpretation of the Titanium Silver Metallic that the original first-generation X5 wore, tying the new car visually to the classic it is shown alongside. It is the kind of considered, referential touch that separates a genuine design project from a simple colour-and-badge job.
Detailed inside and out
The personalisation runs deep. Outside there are Kith badges on the front wings and the rear tailgate, and the whole thing sits on large 23-inch wheels. Inside, the black leather cabin is embossed with the Kith monogram, the backseat armrests carry K&K Crest logo embroidery, and the driver gets a pair of BMW M Carbon Sport front seats. It is a show car in the truest sense, and BMW has confirmed the 2027 X5 by Kith is a one-off that is not for sale, so this exact car will only ever exist once.
The past: the V10 manual that started it
The modern X5 does not stand alone. It is shown as the present half of a past-and-present pair, alongside the car that grabbed all the headlines first: a restored first-generation E53 X5 that Kith founder Ronnie Fieg fitted with the E60 M5's 500 hp S85 V10 and a six-speed manual. That build, the X5 M that BMW never dared to make, is a story in its own right, and together the two cars form a neat love letter to the X5 across a quarter of a century.
AutoNext Take
The V10 restomod is the car that makes enthusiasts weak at the knees, but the modern one-off is arguably the more significant of the two. Using a fashion collaboration to sneak out an early, real-world look at the next X5, in a bespoke colour and finished to show-car standard, is a clever piece of theatre, and it lets people see and fall for the fifth-generation X5 well before it lands in showrooms. That is smart marketing dressed up as a streetwear flex.
It is also a reminder of how good BMW's collaboration with Kith has become. Rather than slapping a logo on an existing car, the two have built a genuine narrative, a modern next-gen X5 and a mad V10 tribute to the original, tied together by a shared colour and a shared affection for the model. Nobody will ever be able to buy this exact X5, and that is fine. Its job is to make you want the ordinary one, and on the evidence of these photos, it does that job very well indeed.
