SPECTACULAR BESPOKE COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTION CARS REAFFIRM ROLLS-ROYCE’S STATUS AS THE WORLD’S FOREMOST MANUFACTURER OF LUXURY PRODUCTS
2019 saw The Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective, a team of engineers, designers and craftspeople residing at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England, create more Bespoke motor cars than ever before in the marque’s 116 year history. Unprecedented levels of creativity, craft and imagination have brought the unique visions of the marque’s global patrons to life. Almost every one of the record 5,152 motor cars created in 2019 was respectfully tailored by this Bespoke division.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, commented, “I am proud to say that the craftsmen and women of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars have surpassed themselves once again in creating an array of extraordinary motor cars, tailored to the requirements of some of the most influential and discerning individuals in the world. These motor cars become unique works of art and it is an extraordinary feat when you consider that each and every single one of these unique commissions has been created on one production line at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex – the skills of these individuals knows no bounds.”
What follows is an overview of some of the finest examples of Bespoke design and craftsmanship completed by the luxury house throughout 2019.
CANVAS: PHANTOM │MEDIUM: EMBROIDERY
A Stockholm-based entrepreneur with a passion for flowers challenged the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective to create a car that immersed its occupants in floral decadence. The result was the ‘Rose Phantom’: a vision made with a million embroidered stitches.
The starting point was a rose bred exclusively for Rolls-Royce by Harkness Roses. The Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England is the only place in the world where this rose is grown.
The Peacock Blue exterior of the Rose Phantom is punctuated with a Charles Blue twinned-coachline that intertwines organically like the stem of a rose, combining to introduce the rose motif.
Inside, the marque’s fabled starlight headliner illuminates the floral scene, with roses interspersed with Peacock and Adonis Blue butterflies. As a centrepiece of the interior, Phantom’s Gallery is adorned by stems of embroidered roses climbing through the glass fronted fascia.
CANVAS: GHOST │MEDIUM: ENGRAVING, COMMEMORATIVE INGOT, PERFORATED LEATHER, EMBROIDERY
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars marked the close of 10 remarkable years of Ghost by creating a limited edition ‘Zenith Collection’. With just 50 Ghost Zeniths made, the car featured the highest levels of Bespoke ever seen in a Ghost Collection.
The Ghost Zenith drew references from 200EX, the experimental car that introduced the contemporary expression of the Ghost nameplate in 2009. This design was immortalized in a blueprint-inspired artwork, divided into 50 distinct parts, and engraved on the centre console of Ghost Zenith.
A commemorative ingot, made from the original Spirit of Ecstasy of 200EX, was set into the centre console of each of the cars. The Collection’s own Spirit of Ecstasy and clock are engraved with the Zenith name.
Inside, ambient lighting shines through perforated leather, while the rear seats feature embroidery inspired by the seat details of the original 1907 Silver Ghost. The Ghost Zenith Standard Wheelbase also features an extraordinary starlight headliner with a unique Shooting Star configuration. Light trails fire at random across the cabin roof, which consists of over 1,340 individual, hand-finished fibre-optic lights.
CANVAS: DAWN │MEDIUM: AERO COWLING
Following the arrival of the Dawn Aero Cowling in 2018, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars paid tribute to the sea with the Bayside Dawn Aero Cowling. Commissioned by a customer in Yokohama, Japan, this maritime-themed Bespoke motor car paid homage to their seafaring home city.
This one-off model drew inspiration from yachts and speedboats, combining both technical and natural materials. Open-pore teak Canadel panelling, reminiscent of a yacht's deck, is matched with cutting-edge technical fibre. The rear deck complements exterior paint and interior leather colours, evoking the blue seas and white sails associated with the finest traditions of Yokohama Bay.
CANVAS: PHANTOM │MEDIUM: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, GOLD PLATING, GOLD INLAYS
The Digital Soul Phantom is a study in contemporary artisanship; a fusion of human endeavour and computer-generated design. At the heart of this Carrara White with Smokey Quartz two-tone Phantom is a Gallery created by Product Designer Thorsten Franck. An individual’s characteristics are interpreted by an algorithm which translates the data into a swathe of 3D-printed stainless steel. This is then hand-polished and plated in 24-carat gold, resulting in a unique artwork that embodies jewellery, sculpture and architecture.
Gold detailing embellishes the interior of the motor car, with Gold inlays set by hand in Smoked Eucalyptus wood and gold-plated speaker grilles concluding the aesthetic.
CANVAS: WRAITH │MEDIUM: GOLD VACUUM METALIZED WOOD WITH SILVER AND COPPER INLAYS
To mark the centenary of the first non-stop transatlantic flight by Alcock and Brown in June 1919, Rolls-Royce created 50 extraordinary Wraiths in the Wraith Eagle VIII Collection.
The story of their perilous night-time journey, propelled by Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines, is told using Wraith as a canvas. A unique starlight headliner with 1,183 fibre-optic lights depicts the night time sky at the time of their flight. The flight path and constellations are embroidered in brass thread and the exact moment the pair left the clouds, also illustrated in embroidery, and navigated by the stars is indicated by a red fibre-optic light.
Brass speaker covers depict the estimated 1,880-mile flight distance whilst a brass plaque engraved with Winston Churchill’s stirring quote commending the pair’s remarkable achievement adorns the driver’s door.
The Smoked Eucalyptus fascia, vacuum metalized in gold and inlaid with silver and copper, depicts a birds-eye view of the Earth at night, showing a light map of roads and homes glittering below.
CANVAS: PHANTOM │MEDIUM: STAINLESS STEEL AND GOLD INLAY, COACHLINE
The Horology Phantom is touched with elements redolent of fine timepieces. The car was inspired by a meeting of a Rolls-Royce Motor Cars designer and master horologists from La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, who convened to explore the complexities and exotic movements of contemporary luxury timepieces.
Set against a Gunmetal and Black two-tone exterior finish, a gold and silver hand-painted twin coachline incorporates an intricate watch-inspired design; the Spirit of Ecstasy is cloaked in 24-carat gold. Inside, the fascia features the largest stainless steel and gold inlay ever made for Phantom. Positioned below a multiple layered stainless-steel Gallery, the inlay depicts an abstract schematic of a watch movement. The Rolls-Royce clock, housed in the Gallery, is set in a solid silver, guilloché case.
CANVAS: GHOST, DAWN, WRAITH │MEDIUM: PAINT, TECHNICAL FIBRE
The Pastel Collection, showcased at Pebble Beach, drew upon a palette of colours from this year’s ‘wildflower super-bloom’ on California’s Monterey Peninsula. Three unique Black Badge commissions brought new colours to the Rolls-Royce Bespoke palette, reaffirming the notion that a Rolls-Royce Black Badge need not necessarily be black.
The Ghost Black Badge featured a Light Green Solid finish, a pastel shade representing the rebirth of flora on the peninsula after years of drought and fire. The black leather interior features a striking Serenity Green splash, highlighting the technical fibre of the fascia.
The Dawn Black Badge, in Coral Solid, showcases a stunning Bespoke finish only achieved after seven coats of paint and more than nine hours of hand-polishing in the Surface Finish Centre at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood. The Coral colour carries over to the Aero Cowling, while the interior is finished in Artic White and Sunset, an illustration of northern California’s hills and valleys in bloom.
The third car is a Wraith Black Badge in Semaphore Yellow, a bright and sunny finish for the most powerful member of the Rolls-Royce family, complemented by a Selby Grey and Lemon interior.
CANVAS: WRAITH │MEDIUM: EMBROIDERY, PAINT
The Falcon Wraith features the most detailed single embroidery to ever appear in a Rolls-Royce motor car. An intricate embroidery of a Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird in the world, is interpreted in photo-realistic detail amongst clouds on Wraith’s headlining. Consisting of nearly 250,000 stitches, the dramatic embroidery took more than one month to develop.
A unique coachline in Arctic White hints at the form of the bird’s wing, with the motif additionally embroidered between the rear seats and painted onto Wraith’s fascia.
CANVAS: PHANTOM │MEDIUM: EMBROIDERY, PAINT, MOTHER OF PEARL, SCULPTED SILK APLIQUÉ
The Arabian Gulf Phantom adopts the rich colours and historical narrative of pearl diving in the Middle East. The Turchese exterior hue is evocative of the vibrant local waters, while the Andalusian White upper two-tone recalls the purity of natural pearls, alluding to the story within. An Arctic White coachline introduces a hand-painted Nautilus shell motif that forms the basis for the car’s design.
A sculpted silk appliqué Gallery by British Artist Helen Amy Murray takes centre stage across the motor car’s fascia. Reminiscent of swelling oceans, the Turchese Gallery is punctuated by a Mother of Pearl clock.
The Nautilus shell is embroidered on Phantom’s rear doors, whilst the rear occupants may also enjoy the motif in Mother of Pearl marquetry on the picnic tables’ fascia. Once deployed, the picnic tables present a complex piece of marquetry, incorporating generously applied Mother of Pearl to the picnic table-top.
CANVAS: PHANTOM │MEDIUM: METEORITE, SPACE GRADE ALUMINIUM, GOLD PLATE
Named and crafted to celebrate the feeling of euphoric tranquillity one achieves within Phantom, this unique motor car is a curation of objects and inspirations from worlds beyond earthly bounds.
Tranquillity’s Gallery is inspired by the X-Ray coded aperture masks used on the British Skylark space rocket. The Gallery is made from stainless steel, 24-carat gold plating and space grade aluminium.
For the first time in Rolls-Royce history, meteorite has been incorporated into the interior of a car. Shavings of the Muonionalusta meteorite, which fell to earth in Kiruna, Sweden in 1906, adorn the Volume Controller, with a detailed engraving of the location and date of its discovery.
Inspired by the light and dark sides of the Moon, the interior colourway of Arctic White or Selby Grey leather integrates unique veneer combinations of gloss and satin, both with an exclusive metallic effect. Bespoke Audio speaker frets are finished in yellow gold, complementing the additional gold elements throughout the car.
A Bespoke ‘Technical’ yellow gold, vapour blasted and engraved titanium clock and engineered titanium Spirit of Ecstasy complete the aesthetic.
CANVAS: CULLINAN │MEDIUM: PAINT
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars debuted the colourful ‘Cullinan in Fux Orange’ under the summer sun of Pebble Beach last year.
Working with the Bespoke Collective at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, a North American patron, Mr. Fux, challenged designers to match the exterior colour to vibrant orange shawl that had caught his eye in South Florida. The shawl was delivered to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars where a colour-matching process began. Working together for nearly a year, the teams created a seven-layer surface, polished by hand for many hours in the Surface Finish Centre.
The interior is decked in hand-crafted Arctic White leather with contrast Orange stitching and Orange Rolls-Royce ‘RR’ headrest monograms. Arctic White is carried over to the box-grain leather fascia, steering-wheel control stems and carpets. ‘Fux Orange’ fascia veneer, rear-view mirror and lambswool floor mats complete the cabin, which showcase the exacting standards brought to bear by Rolls-Royce’s craftspeople.
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