Rolls-Royce builds some of the most luxurious and exclusive vehicles on the planet. You need lots of money just to get yourself a base model. We suspect that even then, the dealership experience is the ultimate in British deference, class, and sophistication. But if you’ve got more money than that, big piles of the stuff, you can go up another rung to the company’s Bespoke offerings. That’s where they’ll customize (or defile) a Rolls Royce to your very exacting specifications.
I’m perhaps being a little unfair; Rolls Royce generally intends to make its cars the pinnacle of aesthetic pleasure whatever your taste. Taste is the operative word, though, and one person’s custom Rolls is another’s idea of gauche overexpression. Regardless, the company has been hard at work this year, and it’s got plenty of fine examples of its Bespoke outfit to boast about. Let’s thumb through, shall we?
The so-called Rose Blossom Phantom headlines this year’s cataloguing of the Bespoke Collective’s output. It’s a one-off Phantom Extended, with the long-wheelbase model treated to embroidery artworks inspired by the Phantom Rose that the company maintains in its very own courtyard gardens.
The rose motif is continued in the Starlight headliner, a piece which we’re told took in excess of 200 hours to put together. There are butterflies amongst the flowers, too, but we’re not talking about just any fluttering pollinators, here. Rolls Royce is exacting, and selected the Swallowtail, Peacock, Common Blue and Duke of Burgundy for the design. Less stately British butterflies like the Painted Lady and Meadow Brown need not apply. Marquetry panels of inlaid wood also continue the floral styling.
Completed this year, the Phantom Syntopia is reportedly the most technically complex commission that the Bespoke department has taken on. The car was a collaboration between Rolls Royce and Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. The theme for the car is called “Weaving Water,” and includes a headliner that took almost three and a half times longer than the one in the Rose Blossom Phantom. Yes, almost 700 hours went into the headliner alone, using one layer of leather sheet overlaid on a “liquid metal” fabric to create a three-dimensional look. It also features 162 delicate glass petals, so be careful not to bump into the headliner.
Photographs of the Phantom Syntopia include exquisite couture outfits that match the designs seen in the car’s interior itself. One really must hope that the dresses come with the car.
The Barbie brigade will appreciate the Ghost Champagne Rose. At first blush, it’s nothing crazy—but that’s kind of why it works. Where some bespoke creations have more complicated lines and flourishes than a modern art exhibit, the Ghost Champagne Rose is more like an elegantly tailored classic suit. It’s not gaudy or flashy beyond its simple tone; if anything, it reminds us of Marge Simpson in Chanel on fleek.
If you’re up on your big Instagrammers, you might have figured out that the car was created for travel influencer Champagne Rose. I have to say, I’m unfamiliar with her work, but her taste in cars is exquisite. In every way the Phantom Syntopia is too much, the Champagne Rose is just right. I’d bet you $65 that Rose is a big Legally Blonde fan, too. I wonder if she hates the sequel as much as I do?
Not everything that comes out of the Bespoke workshops is worthy of your attention, or mine. But the simply-named Pearl Cullinan might be. It was commissioned for its owner as a birthday present from their family; as someone who received an old Ford Falcon as a gift, I’m feeling a little hard done by. As you might expect, the namesake oyster output features heavily in the design, in what the company says is some of the most elaborate use of mother of pearl ever seen in one of its vehicles.
It’s a car full of very personal touches. The headliner features the night sky as it was seen at the owner’s birthplace on the night they were born, which is kind of amusing, because there’s no way the owner could possibly remember what that looked like even if they were outside. Really, though, the pearl inlays are gorgeous – the sort of thing you’d find on proper high-value antiques. The picnic tables alone are probably worth more than my cars.
It would also be remiss not to mention the Rolls Royce Black Badge Ghost Ekleipsis. It’s themed around the concept of an eclipse, featuring a black aesthetic with striking golden highlights. The interior headliner features an animated nighttime scene depicting a corona around the Moon’s silhouette. It’s eye-catching, sure, but it’s also here because it’s got the best external shot of all the Bespoke cars Rolls Royce featured in the press release. If I didn’t mention it, you’d be confused if I used it for the top shot, so, you know. Enjoy.
The fact that Rolls Royce can do top-tier craftsmanship isn’t really news. The simple fact is, when your customer has a big enough budget, you can hire professionals to do whatever gorgeous marquetry, inlay work, or embroidery they so desire. Heck, offer them enough money and they’ll probably develop some kind of nanotube-based automassage leather if you seem sincere enough and the checks clear. If you do, we’d love the scoop on how it works at an engineering level, so don’t be afraid to reach out for a chat!
Man oh man, X to the Z and the fellas really pimped out that 300C…but does it have a pop-out grill???
Oh, I was too busy gazing at the model in avant-garde costume and wondering how she manages to embark and disembark the car without ruining her costume…
If Mary Kay sold coke
I configured a really awesome Spectre a few weeks back.
The interior was cream, green and blue – the paintwork was Monteverde – and there was tons of Sindora wood.
But that’s just normal money.
In extraordinary money – I’d commission a Spectre Drophead Coupe.
I’d request ombre paintwork that goes from Monteverde up top to a medium-dark blue below.
The roof would be a specially-woven wool jacquard textile that combines medium blue, teal and black threads.
The interior would be in the tones of cream, teal and blue – and the wood, including the decking for the tonneau, would be planked teak.
Because the colors are inspired by my collection of midcentury Bitossi ceramics – I’d call the car “Rimini Blu”
I let you know when I take delivery of mine, you guys can do a deep dive on it.
The Gypsy Rose lowrider did it first, did it better and that was in the early 1960’s. These Rolls look terrible. Do any rich people have good taste? I’m beginning to doubt it.
Maybe people with taste don’t drive Rolls Royces.
I think my grandmother had an old chair with upholstery that looked like the embroidered flowers of that first one. I think we ended up putting out on the curb and nobody took it.
Fashion “designers” are stylists. Shit like that disgusting manatee-run-over-by-a-powerboat headliner and laughably stupid dress designs that look like they’re made from Shrinky Dinks or the third one of somebody in their last moment of life just as the top of their gown gets caught in industrial machinery says it all. [Rest of rant deleted—Happy holidays, everyone!]
Putting your grandmother out on the curb is unkind.
It must really suck to be rich with an inferiority complex. For whatever reason it seems to run rampant in that small subset of human beings.
Having made a starlight headliner, there’s no way they spent 200 hours on one. They’re very time intensive, like on the order of 12-16 hours to make one if you really take your time. If you were a master craftsman taking the utmost car it might be possible to spend as much as 30 hours. No way 200 happened.
Also starlight headliners are the tackiest dumbest thing ever, and sum up recent Rolls Royce very well.
Did you do the embroidery on your headliner too?
No, but having used a CNC embroidery machine, I can tell you that is less than five hours of work, possibly a lot less. Still not even a little bit close to 200 hours.
I’m not a dour person, nor am I a member of the “Eat the Rich” brigade. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, not a single example of the millions of dollars in custom work on display here does anything to enhance these cars for me. Do I appreciate the embroidery? Sure, but on a dashboard and headliner it just looks silly. The marquetry roses and mother-of-pearl inlays are lovely but it’s all a little “Downton Abbey” for a 21st century car, except Lord Grantham would never have gone for that crap on his car. Hell, they didn’t even have a Rolls, just a Renault and a Sunbeam. And that interior on the Van Herpen car is an H.R. Giger-esque nightmare.
Rolls-Royce have been building awful tacky cars as long as they’ve been around. This has historically been more than balanced out by the exquisite and beautiful cars they have built alongside them. I’m sure that most (Okay, some. A few? Maybe?) of the “Bespoke” cars are tasteful and subtle, it’s unfortunate that Rolls have decided to showcase what they can do instead of what they should do.
This is for peasants. No chandelier, no class.
Damn it, now I’m going to be humming that Sia song for the rest of the day.
Right on, I want chandeliers on each front fender, like the Duke has in Escape from New York
I know a freelance automotive embroiderer, he also does normal trimming work.
He’s my custom steering wheel guy. If you don’t mind waiting a couple of months the rates are quite reasonable.
Here’s a good video about RR’s bespoke projects.
I like the pink one.
Champagne Rose looks like a Mary Kay Caddy
You get the Rolls when you climb to the very top of that particular pyramid scheme.
In addition to lacking the required funding, I think I also lack the required imagination to own a Rolls Royce. I can’t think of any pattern, design, or motif that I’d want to see all over the inside (and/or outside) of my car. All of these are very pretty and clearly took a lot of talent to execute, and I don’t think I can come up with any unique design that could take advantage of these artisans’ skills.
That’s also why I don’t have a tattoo – not creative enough to think up something good that I can also guarantee myself I won’t get sick of after awhile
I know several people who also can’t think of anything they wouldn’t get sick of after a while.
It doesn’t stop them getting tattoos. Terrible tattoos they regret.
Yeah this is my dilemma too. I’ve always wanted a tattoo (or several) but could never decide on what I actually wanted. I had a friend who had them who told me the best way to figure it out was to decide on something, wait a year, and if I still liked the idea then go ahead and do it.
Wellllll nothing stuck for that long. I’d come up with ideas then more or less get over them pretty quickly, which told me not to go ahead with any of them. They’re also damn expensive and at the time that I really wanted them I was broke because I was a college and graduate student.
My parents are also fairly socially conservative…not necessarily in a like, MAGA way or anything, they’re quite tolerant and have mostly progressive social values, they just happen to be super traditional people…and for some reason tattoos were the ultimate faux pa to them. That kind of stuck with me and I didn’t want to get any work done until I was fully financially independent.
Anyway I’m in my early 30s now and I think the time to do it has passed. In this day and age it’s almost become more unique not to have tattoos than to have them, and I still don’t care about anything enough to have it permanently put on my body…and the stuff I do care about would make for very cliched tattoos anyway (family, heritage, etc).
So yeah. I feel it. Sometimes I get FOMO and wish I had a couple but getting ink because of FOMO is a baaaaaad idea. Slash all of my friends who have several have at least one or two that they really regret. It almost seems inevitable.
I can neither confirm nor deny that I have the Starfleet logo tattooed on my upper arm as the result of an alcohol-assisted decision made at Comic-Con that I was too stubborn to back out of once sober. I regert nothing!
That “weaving water” thing on the ceiling looks to me like a giant house centipede.
I was thinking Arthropleura trackway. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropleura).
Reminds me of the GFC, when Bentley had their wood specialists literally just knock out bespoke wood furniture, rather than them being idle while sales were through the floor.
He stalks through the factory floor. A ruffian in an exquisitely embroidered jacket. A sneering toady tries to stop him from approaching the headliner area.
“Who are you, and why do you think you belong here!?” the toady cries out.
Quietly, the man replies “I’m here for a job. The big man hired me. Now move or I’ll give you a little scrap and sew you up with it.”
“He hired you? You!?! I don’t believe it. Leave. Immediately.” the haughty toady demanded.
“Suit yourself” said the man, as he reached into his jacket pocket.
Before the toady knew what was happening, the man was upon him. Fists and needles flashed. As the toady lay dazed, bloodied, and beautifully embroidered on the ground the man stood.
“I’d tell you to get your mother to stitch that for you, but she obviously didn’t do a good enough job with your weaving.”
While the flowers could be a cool idea(?) they look like something out of a JoAnn Fabrics Tuesday Night Embroidery with Gail.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Old luxury cars from the 1920s and 30s often had intricately embroidered upholstery fabric with floral designs, but those roses are significantly larger scale and stuck in kind of an odd spot. As a smaller repeating pattern on the seats or door cards, maybe? Then it would feel like more of a throwback to a prewar Rolls
Sure, Rolls-Royces are aesthetically pleasing…
but at what cost? (Don’t answer that.)
My gut says I’d still prefer a Phaeton.