- Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and his Oscar-winning costume and production designer wife Catherine Martin have designed a train carriage for luxury travel outfit Belmond
- The private dining and events carriage has been dubbed ‘Celia’, after a fictitious West End actress and incorporates a variety of quintessentially British references ranging from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Sir Laurence Olivier
- Celia will be set inside an original 1932 carriage on the British Pullman, a Belmond Train, and joins ‘Cygnus’, a carriage designed by film director Wes Anderson two years prior
- Celia will be available for exclusive use aboard the British Pullman, with prices starting at £15,000
Baz Luhrmann has translated his signature theatrical maximalism and affinity for subtly incorporating pop culture references into the interior design sphere. Working alongside his wife and frequent collaborator, Oscar-winning costume and production designer Catherine Martin, the Australian filmmaker has designed a dining and events carriage for Belmond’s British Pullman train.
Dubbed ‘Celia’, it’s housed within an original 1932 Pullman carriage and is home to a cocktail bar, lounge, dining area (complete with a pantry and kitchen), and entertainment space. Seating up to 12 guests, the self-contained carriage is intended for private use and comes with its own dedicated stewards. Destined to set the scene for extravagant celebrations, grand banquets, and intimate rendezvous alike, Celia is able to act as a private stage for guests’ events to unfold in a filmic fashion. Naturally, a private chef is available on request to create bespoke menus using seasonal British produce.
Approaching the design of the British Pullman carriage with the same diegetic storytelling lent to one of their films, Luhrmann and Martin took a character-led approach. The train carriage, Celia, is the physical embodiment of a fictional character the husband-and-wife duo dreamt up; a leading lady on London’s West End who is gifted a lavish train carriage following an exemplary performance as Queen Titania in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The fictitious relationship between Celia and her lover, an American industrialist named John, is based on that of Citizen Kane’s Charles Foster Kane and Susan Alexander, which in turn references the real life love story between William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies. Newspaper magnate Hearst (yes, that Hearst) met performer Davies when she was aged 19 and he 53. Despite being married at the time, Hearst pursued Davies and the pair carried out an affair that lasted three decades, with the newspaper tycoon famously funding the performer’s career as a film actress—even founding Cosmopolitan Pictures to produce her films—and frequently bought her extravagant gifts.
“In our story, our American industrialist ‘John’, not unlike Hearst, has a beautiful private dining carriage crafted for his lover Celia and her glamorous friends,” explained Luhrmann. “John becomes a metaphorical linchpin, marrying the pinnacle of rail innovation of the era—the Pullman cars—with the romance and exacting artistry of English craftsmanship. You feel this in the delicate inlays, the carved panelling, the polished fittings.”
Fittingly, the carriage coalesces the private world of the fictitious muse for which it’s named with the fantastical world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to create an immersive cinematic experience. The design narrative further takes its cues from the British landscape, incorporating its flora and fauna throughout.
Taking charge of the interior design element, Catherine Martin worked alongside marquetry artisans Dunn & Son, leading British bespoke furniture designer Bill Cleyndert, as well as Tony Sandles Bespoke Glass studio, embroiders Hand and Lock, and J.K Interiors to bring the space to life.
“Once we had Baz’s character of Celia, the interior design of the carriage became a space encoded with her life story, a world carefully constructed so that the passenger might step inside it and be transported into her universe,” shared Martin. “Watching the world slip past through a rectangular window that frames the landscape is actually a profoundly filmic experience. Like a film, the timeframe is fixed, and the designer’s role is to guide the participant’s perspective within the constraints of a relatively small space.
“Film, theatre, and storytelling through design are all exercises in solving practical problems, without allowing them to obstruct the imagination. In the same way, the limitations of a train carriage should never dictate the experience – they should inspire it. Designing the interior of a train is fundamentally about how humans inhabit space; that is both the challenge and the thrill.”
An elaborate fabric ceiling presides over the carriage, which is appointed with veneered marquetry and custom timber parquetry, which forms the backdrop for plush velvet upholstered furniture. Floral motifs adorn the oak wood marquetry, with the space united by a colour palette of rich greens, yellows, reds, and purples. Elsewhere, the walls and ceiling of a separate powder room have been handpainted with flowers and mystical motifs and decorated with mosaics to create yet another immersive environment.
Within the carriage, spaces are delineated by heavy theatre-style curtains which contribute to a sense of intimacy and worlds within a world — each pulled aside to reveal a new dreamscape.
“For Catherine and I, creating Celia was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, allowing us to push the boundaries of creativity, luxury, and uniqueness,” said Luhrmann. “Stepping inside the carriage is like being transported into another world, and one in which guests are invited to become part of the story. Celia, at its heart, is a magical mystery tour — a travelling dining experience for friends or an intimate celebration, filled with food, music, wine, laughter, and performance.”
Words by Theo Rosen
