Rolls-Royce is no stranger to the link between the fashion and automotive industries, with the Cullinan recently receiving a runway-inspired colour-blocked makeover. Now, haute couture meets high luxury in the new Rolls-Royce Phantom Syntopia, a bespoke vehicle created in collaboration with Dutch fashion designer and couturier Iris van Herpen.
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Deemed the “most technically complex bespoke Phantom ever produced” by the British marque, the Rolls-Royce Phantom Syntopia takes its name and inspiration from the 2018 collection by Iris van Herpen, which was inspired by the principles of biomimicry which influence the shapes and patterns found in nature. Like the sculptural garments in the collection that inspired it, the Phantom Syntopia seeks to represent the ethereal beauty of fluid motion through solid materials, expressed through the ‘Weaving Water’ theme.
“For this special collaboration, I was inspired by the concept of ‘Weaving Water’ and transformed the sense of being in movement into an immersive experience of fluidity inside the Phantom,” said van Herpen. “I wanted this to become a state-of-the-art experience of being overwhelmed by the forces of nature. The powerful movement of the Phantom is woven into the shifting three-dimensional waves inside the car to embody the ingenuity of nature.”
The exterior is clad in a one-off Liquid Noir finish, which reveals undertones of purple, blue, magenta, and gold depending on the light. To achieve the effect, Rolls-Royce’s deepest shade of black paint, which is then overlaid with a mirror-like pigmented finish, selected for its colour-changing properties. To add an elegant shimmer, the Rolls-Royce team developed a new technique for applying pigment to the clearcoat — a process that required over 3,000 hours of testing and validation. The bonnet of the car features a subtle rendition of the Weaving Water motif that appears inside, executed by redistributing the pigment during the finishing process.
Step inside and you’ll find several breathtaking couture-led features co-created by the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective and Iris van Herpen, with some features handcrafted at the Home of Rolls-Royce by the marque’s craftspeople alongside members of Iris van Herpen’s team, while others were created in the designer’s atelier alongside her couture garments.
The interior suite is dominated by the starlight headliner. A statement feature in any Rolls-Royce, the Weaving Water starlight headliner in the Phantom Syntopia is the marque’s most technically challenging yet. Crafted from a single sheet of leather, it employs precise symmetrical cuts that reveal a silver ‘liquid metal’ texture made from woven nylon fabric used in Iris van Herpen’s Embossed Sounds collection. The effect is three-dimensional, with the starlight headliner finished with 162 delicate petals made of glass organza, applied by Iris van Herpen’s couture team in a process that took over 300 hours.
The Weaving Water motif continues throughout the interior suite, with unique artwork that combines haute couture techniques with innovative visual forms. Naturally, a couture-inspired car provides ample ground for an exploration of textiles. The front seats of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Syntopia are finished in Magic Grey leather, while the rear seats are upholstered with a specially created silk-blend fabric, featuring a pattern that shows the light reflecting on water at night. The seats are quilted with another Weaving Water motif, like a tufting technique seen in furniture-making in which embroidery is applied to the reverse side of the textile, resulting in a three-dimensional effect.
Rolls-Royce and Iris van Herpen know that true bespoke experiences cater to all the senses. The first car from the British marque to incorporate a bespoke scent, the Rolls-Royce Phantom Syntopia fragrance was developed by an expert perfumer and is designed to complement the aromas arising from other materials used in the car. Notes of iris (naturally) meet leather, rose, and lemon, with the scent released through a mechanism housed in the headrests. The patented technology ensures the sophisticated scent is released in delicate doses, creating a thoroughly immersive experience.
Words by Theo Rosen
