At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, Rolls-Royce showed why it is considered to be the world’s leading luxury house by showcasing the full breadth of its Bespoke capabilities. The facets of Bespoke tailoring, Bespoke engineering and Bespoke jewellery demonstrated to every connoisseur who commissions a Rolls-Royce that they can count on having their desire for a truly personal motor car, that reflects who they are, fulfilled in the most fitting manner to them. In short, they can be assured that Bespoke is Rolls-Royce.

‘Dawn – Inspired by Fashion’ will, with its Spring/Summer 2017 collection of three color schemes, show how Bespoke means complementing the fine couture our patrons wear from day to day.

Wraith Black Badge, a motor car Bespoke-engineered to suit its younger, edgier customers will demonstrate that at Rolls-Royce, Bespoke is anything but skin deep.

And one patron has allowed Rolls-Royce to show the Geneva crowds that only they can “create the unimaginable” by showing the Elegance, the ultimate expression of luxury with the luxury world’s first Diamond paint finish.

Such cars are considered works of art by their collectors and owners, and in homage to this status, Belgian artist, Charles Kaisin, has created a Bespoke sculpture for the Rolls-Royce Art Programme that will adorn the Rolls-Royce stand for the duration of the Geneva Salon.

Elegance

This year, Rolls-Royce brought Elegance to the Geneva International Motor Show, a car inspired by something that cannot be bought, but is innate…style. 

The lifestyle of the Rolls-Royce customer is like no other. They are unapologetic in their lifestyle choices and are proud to showcase this to the world. In the words of Coco Chanel, “Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.”

One such connoisseur of luxury has chosen to share their personal vision of elegance with those who attend the Geneva Motor Show this year; the Rolls-Royce Ghost Elegance, the first luxury motor car to be finished in a paint created from diamonds.

Only Rolls-Royce, with the skilled craftspeople who reside in its paintshop, could have created a paint made from 1,000 crushed diamonds. Named ‘Diamond Stardust’, this is the most luxurious and lustrous exterior ever seen on a motor car, and the most expensive paint to grace the body of a Rolls-Royce.

Commissioned for an individual collector, this unique motor car takes the term Bespoke to the next level.

This exclusive paint was created by the craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood by subjecting 1,000 ethically-sourced diamonds to a special process.

This process saw the diamonds go through extensive testing to ensure their radiance when used in a paint. Goodwood’s Technical Laboratory Leader, Paolo Travaglia, and his team of paint specialists, Rawdon Evernden and Joseph Piotrowski, spent two months of concentrated testing to achieve the perfect result. Examining the dimensions of the precious stones with the use of a high-powered microscope, the team carefully analysed their transmission and reflection of light. The density and strength of the diamonds created a challenge for the team to produce an easy marriage with the clear paint and its ability to spread gracefully over a surface, leaving the diamonds undetectable to the touch.

This process resulted in the creation of a very fine diamond powder which was then mixed into the paint. Additionally, a new and unique paint process was developed, including the application of an extra final layer of lacquer to protect the diamond particles during the hand-polishing process. This process added an extra two days of paint application by hand and a further day of finishing.

Applied to the top section of the car, the paint finish glistens like no other, making this a motor car to be recognised and appreciated. Just like its owner, the car exudes unapologetic luxury and grandeur.

The final elegant exterior touches to this one off Rolls-Royce Ghost have been applied by master coachline painter, Mark Court, with a squirrel-hair paint brush. The flanks of the motor car are accented with Mugello Red and Black twin coachlines. To enhance the exterior further, the centre of the 21 inch wheels are hand-painted with a Mugello Red pinstripe. Last but not least at the prow of the car, showcased in all her glory, an uplit Spirit of Ecstasy guides this unique Rolls-Royce, and its owner, into the future.

The interior of this unique Rolls-Royce Ghost also communicates the elegant tastes of its owner. Chauffeur and passenger areas are clearly demarcated as in the early days of luxury motoring. The chauffeur’s ‘cockpit’ features black leather seats with accents of Mugello Red stitching on the doors, and piping on the seats. The colour black is continued in the lustrous carpet and lambswool footmats. 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.

Adorning the rear sanctuary, the lounge seat is contoured with Selby Grey soft leather and also accompanied with Mugello Red stitching and piping. The inner pockets of the rear doors are lined with a favourite material of the owner; a Grey, Black and Red Tartan.

Haute Couture meets Rolls-Royce 

“Style is very personal. It has nothing to do with fashion. Fashion is over quickly. Style is forever.”
Ralph Lauren

For the first time at a public motor show, The House of Rolls-Royce presents its full Spring/Summer 2017 Couture collection that is ‘Dawn – Inspired by Fashion’. 

The world of Fashion and Rolls-Royce have created a shared value of providing their clients with the ability to have the finest luxury goods, tailored to their tastes and lifestyles. It is Rolls-Royce clients who are seen in the front rows of the best Couture shows, a part of the world’s fashion elite. As today’s taste makers, it is their take on design and style which transforms the direction fashion moves in.

Design Director, Giles Taylor, and his team of talented designers at the Home of Rolls-Royce in West Sussex, who are responsible for the most intricate embroideries and textiles offered by the brand, carefully selected Andalusian White, a pure colour from the eclectic palette of the Rolls-Royce paints, to be the canvas for the motor car accented in three vibrant colours; Mugello Red, Cobalto Blue and Mandarin. The 2017 Geneva Motor Show is the first time all three choices have been seen together.

Like the clients who will be drawn to this collection, the car represents simplified, classic style. As featured on numerous catwalks throughout London Fashion week, colour blocking, said to have originated from the artwork of Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian, is a bold trend that sees opposite colours paired together to make interesting and complementary combinations. This current fashion trend features as the main garment on the car, a brightly-coloured canvas roof that unfolds in a ‘Silent Ballet’.

The Arctic White leather of the seats, truly a bold and distinctive colour, displays seamless handcraftsmanship through the piping, stitching and embroided RR monograms on all four headrests. The dashboard is lacquered with a clean Piano White wood finish, whilst the interiors of the coach doors are accented with that classic fashion staple, Black. Setting off this monochromatic treatment, the inside of the door pockets are lined with fine-to-the-touch patterned tailored silk, in one of the three vivid colours, a colour that also flows onto the hand-stitched two-tone steering wheel, which sits in the owner’s hand as comfortably as would any fine holdall or handbag.

Wraith Black Badge

“Black Badge is an attitude to life, an aspect of the Rolls-Royce brand that appeals to those people who are elusive and defiant, the risk takers and disruptors who break the rules and laugh in the face of convention. They are driven by a restless spirit. They play hard and they change theworld.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars 

Bespoke is not simply a cosmetic exercise for Rolls-Royce, as demonstrated by the world’s leading luxury brand at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show when it launched Black Badge, the alter-ego of the marque. In addition to creating a Rolls-Royce that appealed visually to the aesthetic of a younger, edgier customer, the marque understood that those customers also demand something more – bespoke engineering that delivers on what this Rolls-Royce’s looks promise.

Sir Malcolm Campbell, Howard Hughes, Keith Moon, Yves Saint Laurent, Muhammad Ali and our own Charles Rolls to name a few, young gentlemen in a hurry, driven by their restless spirits to change the world in their own way. Untrammelled by social convention, these disruptors lived life on the edge, believing the ultimate power to be self-empowerment, pushing every boundary to realise their personal vision. Glamorous and daring, they lived fast, worked hard and played hard.

Today’s generation of young, self-empowered, self-confident rule-breakers are just as uncompromising and unapologetic in their choice of living and lifestyle as their predecessors. They follow the road less travelled, live the unconventional life, darkly obsessed by their own pursuits and accomplishments from which they derive a pure adrenaline rush.

Over recent years, many such individuals have gravitated towards the revitalised Rolls-Royce Motor Cars as the brand most appropriate to encapsulate their truly individual lifestyles, much as their celebrated predecessors did in days past.

Always pushing their own boundaries, they have asked Rolls-Royce to do the same. Excited by the infinite possibilities that its Bespoke approach offers, they have asked the marque “to produce a Rolls-Royce like no other, a Rolls-Royce that not only appeals to, and projects, our sensibilities, but is fundamentally different – like us.”

And, always ready to deliver a truly Bespoke answer to meet the customer’s desire, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has once again demonstrated its true luxury credentials as the world’s leading super-luxury brand. Rolls-Royce has transformed the very icons of its brand to access a darker side of its character more suited to this breed of successful people.

The result is Black Badge.

Already the most powerful Rolls-Royce in the world at 623hp (465kw), Wraith has always been the most driver-focused car in Rolls-Royce’s model range. However, understanding how driven this new breed of customer is and their wish to push the boundaries of life, Rolls-Royce’s engineering team worked painstakingly to give this most phenomenal fastback coupé a uniquely discernible extra edge.

By combining an extra wave of torque (+70Nm) with the already existing high power output, a completely redesigned air-suspension set up, new drive shafts and uprated 8-speed transmission, Rolls-Royce has produced an even more driver-focused, agile Wraith, while at the same time preserving the intrinsic elements of the effortless Rolls-Royce Magic Carpet Ride.

This Bespoke engineering, combined with the Black Badge aesthetic of the inverted RR-badge, Black Spirit of Ecstasy, blackened brightwork, and more masculine colour-blocking in the interior have proved a transformative moment for Rolls-Royce, opening it up to a new alternative clientele who expect something different from the brand.

Charles Kaisin 

“Rolls-Royce, for me, signifies ultimate luxury. To be given the opportunity to partner with such a marque is a great privilege. Rolls-Royce has provided me with an enriching environment which has in turn allowed me the freedom to explore and push the boundaries of my own work.”
Charles Kaisin

In collaboration with the Rolls-Royce Art Programme, Belgian-born Artist Charles Kaisin has created a magnificent art installation for the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. The piece,3.1m in height, 2m in width and 2.1m in depth, is truly a magical piece which floats gently in the air. Created from individual hand-made origami pieces, it replicates Rolls-Royce’s captivating muse, a figure which graces the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce, the beloved Spirit of Ecstasy. To encapsulate the full silhouette of the Spirit of Ecstasy, each piece of 25cm by 25cm mirrored square, is hung precisely, to avoid compromising the muse’s true form.

In total, the art installation consists of 3,000 identical hand-crafted origami pieces. From multiple angles, the unique design demonstrates the level of craftsmanship, inventiveness, vision and attention to detail that Kaisin, Design teacher at Saint-Luc, Architecture School in Brussels, excels in. Just like the graceful figure that proudly guides each Rolls-Royce, this breath-taking framework, reflects light from its mystical figure allowing shadow and light to collaborate. Kaisin has showcased the attitude of freedom and the pursuit for individuality, an attitude that is reflected in many customers who truly embrace their liberty to create Bespoke Rolls-Royces.

The installation takes a team of three people, three days to complete. Like a Rolls-Royce, this is an unprecedented piece of hand-crafted excellence.