Geneva, 4 March 2015: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has brought Serenity to this year’s Geneva International Motor Show, unveiling the new standard in authentic, bespoke luxury motoring to the world’s media.
Showcasing the tireless efforts of the Bespoke designers and craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood to “Take the best that exists and make it better,” Serenity introduces a completely new level of individualised luxury applied to a Rolls-Royce Phantom – already considered by owners and admirers alike to be “the Best Car in the World.”
Sir Henry Royce’s maxim, “When it does not exist, design it,” inspired the latest generation of Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke designers to ask what wholly new approach to luxury would delight the most demanding and exacting people in the world – Rolls-Royce customers. Their answer came from Rolls-Royce’s deep understanding of the most precious, beautiful and natural materials.
Silk would prove to be the route to a new definition of luxury, one that guarantees every customer a canvas for completely unique design, every time.
The marque’s Bespoke Design team took inspiration from the opulent interiors of Rolls-Royces that have conveyed Kings and Queens, Emperors and Empresses and world leaders. Add to this, contemporary interpretations of furniture design combined with Japanese Royal robe motifs and Rolls-Royce designers have delivered a truly innovative, thoroughly modern and tranquil Rolls-Royce interior.
Delivering authentic modern luxury, Serenity reintroduces the finest of textiles – silk – to create the most opulent interior of any luxury car. This unique design demonstrates the levels of craftsmanship, creativity and attention to detail only Rolls-Royce Motor Cars can offer.
“Having revisited the history of the amazing interiors of the elite Rolls-Royce’s of the early 1900’s, we felt inspired to share this heritage with our new customers in a very contemporary way,” comments Giles Taylor, Director of Design at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The choice of Phantom for this project was obvious, but creating the motif that would define this most opulent and modern of automotive interiors would require considerable new expertise.
Cherica Haye and Michelle Lusby, both Textile Arts graduates from the Royal College of Art and Plymouth University respectively, joined Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke Design department to help realise the direction of the core motif for this magnificent one-off Phantom.
“Some of the most opulent silk motifs come to us from the Orient, where imperial families’ and rich merchants’ robes were made from the finest silk materials,” comments Lusby.
The ultimate example of the most opulent robe design became the junihitoe, a highly complex handmade ‘twelve-layer robe’ of silk worn only by female Japanese courtiers. The colours and the arrangements of the layers were very important, with the colours given poetic names such as ‘crimson plum of the spring’.
In addition, during the Japanese Edo period (1615-1868), the merchant and artisan classes commissioned beautiful clothes to demonstrate their wealth and good taste. Clothing developed into a highly expressive means of personal display, an important indicator of rising affluence and aesthetic sensibility.
The lustre of Phantom Serenity’s exterior dazzles with its powerful and noble presence.
Its Bespoke Mother of Pearl paint is the most expensive one-off paint ever developed by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. It has been added in a three stage pearl effect and hand-polished for 12 hours by the craftspeople at the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood to deliver this shimmering presence.
Hinting at what is to come, a delicate two colour coachline with three colour blossom motif echoes the interior. The coachline that adorns Serenity’s exterior has been applied by the squirrel-hair brush of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars coachline expert, Mark Court. The asymmetric nature of the coachline signifies the respective positions of owner and chauffeur, with the entrance to the rear compartment indicated on the right-hand side of the car with the blossom on the rear wing and coachline ending at the B-pillar.
Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II at a glance
Phantom’s striking and modern front best encapsulates the essence of changes that lie beneath:
- A modern front face, featuring rectangular LED headlamp clusters, indicator strip and new front bumper design
- The first car manufacturer to offer full LED headlamps as standard, incorporating curve light functionality and adaptive headlamps for enhanced road illumination
- New single piece grille surround for Phantom Drophead Coupé and Phantom Coupé; colour coded grille surround offered as an option
- Three new wheel finishes available across the range
- Redesigned rear bumper for Phantom Saloon incorporating polished stainless steel highlight and new seat flute design across the range
