Bespoke is Rolls-Royce. The luxury British automobile marque is a pioneer of craftsmanship that excels in bringing their discerning and influential patrons’ most ambitious and personal visions a reality
Bespoke is Rolls-Royce. Crafting automobiles that are not only coveted but also carry on the characteristics of the owners has made Rolls-Royce an epitome in the world of Bespoke. The Rolls-Royce customisation programme is as renowned as the British marque. Today, almost every motor car that leaves the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England, is Bespoke.
The Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Bespoke department is an extraordinary collective of designers, engineers and craftspeople, who bring the marque’s discerning and influential patrons’ most ambitious and personal visions to reality.
The concept of Bespoke is driven by Rolls-Royce’s founding belief that true luxury houses must intimately understand their patrons to execute their boldest visions at the hands of master craftspeople. True luxury is therefore deeply personal and commissioning a Rolls-Royce a process more akin to the creation of a work of art.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, during one of his visits to Oman, told us: “Bespoke is the jewel in our crown, the perfect complement to our luxury product line-up. In this region, almost every car delivered to a customer has a Bespoke element. This shows the importance of individuality to Middle Eastern clients.”
The Bespoke programme usually comprises of a visit to Goodwood by interested clients to meet with the Bespoke department. The Bespoke orders can also be placed with the local or regional dealers. Stories of Bespoke requests are vast and vary from the loud and outlandish to the stylish and classy. From a client who wanted her Rolls-Royce’s body paint to match the shade of her favourite nail polish to wood inlays from a tree on a customer’s property, the marque has and continues to satisfy the demands of their discerning clientele.
2017 was the year that Rolls-Royce elevated Bespoke to unprecedented new levels, resulting in one of the most significant years for Bespoke in the 114-year history of the brand. Along with a number of customer Bespoke orders, Rolls-Royce itself introduced a number of innovative creations and also added to their Bespoke options.
The new Rolls-Royce Phantom was unveiled to global critical acclaim in 2017. At the heart of the motor car’s design aesthetic is ‘The Gallery’, a contemporary and luxury reinterpretation of a motor car’s dashboard and instrument panel.
An application of glass runs uninterrupted across the fascia providing an unprecedented opportunity to present artwork, within your motor car. ‘The Gallery’ is an innovation that furthers Rolls-Royce’s unparalleled Bespoke vision and mastery of materials and craft.
“As patrons increasingly commission a Rolls-Royce for its aesthetic power, they trust in the knowledge that only the finest materials fashioned at the hands of a collective of skilled artisans will produce a motor car that transcends its primary role as a means of conveyance, to become a meaningful and substantive expression of art, design and engineering excellence. ‘The Gallery’ is an innovation that furthers Rolls-Royce’s unparalleled Bespoke capabilities. Patrons are now invited to commission artworks for their own personal Gallery within Phantom, in essence, bringing art, within art,” said Torsten.
An intrinsic part of the Rolls-Royce Design team’s responsibility is to understand and immerse themselves in a world of luxury far beyond automotive horizons. Drawing inspiration from the worlds of fashion, art and design, the collective continually examines the work of experts in their fields, furthering skills and knowledge in order to push the boundaries beyond the limitations car designers are usually confined to. In conceiving ‘The Gallery’, the design team has done just this.
“Our customers across the globe delight in challenging our designers and craftspeople to create true, one-of-a-kind pieces of automotive art. Our automobiles serve to showcase the extraordinary scope for Bespoke personalisation afforded to every patron of the marque,” said Torsten.
Our top picks from the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Deparment
‘Spirit of Calligraphy’ Ghost
A special one-off commission unveiled in Dubai in 2017, the Bespoke ‘Spirit of Calligraphy’ Ghost draws its design inspiration from the ancient art of Arabic calligraphy. Words are harmoniously moulded into shapes, creating a unique effect where texts and images become one. Sir Henry Royce’s resonant words “Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it”, in their Arabic form are shaped into Rolls-Royce’s flying mascot, the Spirit of Ecstasy. The calligraphy motif, created by renowned artist Khaled Al Saai, features as a silver inlay on the centre panel and as embroidery on the rear centre seat, amidst an eye-catching array of Turchese, Black and Arctic White leathers.
‘Elegance’
Commissioned for an individual collector, the Ghost ‘Elegance’ raised the bar of Bespoke by becoming the first Rolls-Royce to be finished in a paint infused with diamonds. The flanks of the motor car are highlighted with Mugello Red and Black twin coachlines, reflected inside with black leather seats and accents in Mugello Red, carried through stitching on the doors and piping on the seats. The detailed fascia of smooth open-pore Tudor Oak veneer is also complemented with a Mugello Red single stitch along the top of the dashboard, and finished with a Bespoke clock.
‘Dawn in Fuxia’
In 2017, US collector Michael Fux was presented with his tenth Bespoke model from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Following a visit to Pebble Beach in 2016, where he collected a cluster of eye-catching fuchsia petals, he challenged the Bespoke team at Goodwood with a commission to bring a striking new colour to Dawn. Subsequently unveiled during The Quail automotive gathering in California, the vibrant ‘Dawn in Fuxia’ represents the addition of another unique hue to the Rolls-Royce Colour Collection, and is reserved exclusively for Mr. Fux to use. His most recent commission is his second Dawn, having collected the first – in one-off ‘Fux Blue’ – in 2016. Reminiscent of that car, the interior of ‘Dawn in Fuxia’ is trimmed in stunning Arctic White leather.
