Skip to main content

Rolls Royce ‘Serenity Concept’ unveiled

The English luxury automakers have taken inspiration from contemporary interpretations of European furniture combined with royal Japanese kimono designs to create this one-off concept.

The Phantom Serenity concept features an oriental theme and is inspired by the “amazing interiors of the elite Rolls-Royces of the early 1900s”, according to director of design, Giles Taylor. The concept also celebrates “the historical role played by silk as a symbol of regal and imperial power”. The cabin features handwoven Chinese silk adorned with hand-painted crimson blossoms along with smoked cherry wood, mother of pearl, bamboo cross-banding and arctic white leather. The bespoke mother of pearl paint used on the car is the most expensive one-off paint ever developed by the company and was applied over three stages, followed by 12 hours of hand polishing.

The car also has two parasols featuring the Serenity motif held by bespoke leather loops incorporated into the boot lid. A two-colour coachline with a three-colour blossom motif adorns the Serenity's exterior and echoes the interior. It has been applied by the squirrel-hair brush of Rolls-Royce's coachline expert, Mark Court.

The silk was sourced from Suzhou, China, where it was hand dyed by Chinese craftsmen before being sent to one of Britain’s oldest mills in Essex, where it was hand-stitched for the car’s interior. The numerous colours of silk thread were blended into a warp, which has 140 threads per centimeter, to result in the 'Smoke Green' colour of the underlying silk fabric.

Once prepared, the silk was transferred to London, where the blossom motif designed by Haye and Lusby was embroidered onto it. The final touch was the detailed petal-by-petal hand-painting of crimson blossoms directly onto the silk.

Bespoke cars are making up an increasing part of Rolls Royce’s sales in the present, with as many as 85 percent of the cars now commissioned with some level of bespoke content.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Urus India review, test drive

             On first introduction, it’s a recipe for intimidation. It’s claimed to be the fastest SUV in the world (0-100kph in 3.6sec and a top speed of 305kph puts it nearly in supercar territory), and it’s made by Lamborghini – creator of some of the most savage vehicles on the market. Things – as with any Lamborghini, for that matter – would be a lot less daunting if we were driving on a smooth European country road, a wide motorway, or even a race track. But today we’re driving the Urus on a narrow  ghat  road, as well as through some heavy Pune traffic. Perhaps the intention was to demonstrate that this is the first Lamborghini ever to go on sale in India that truly works in our conditions – but still, I doubt they accounted for rush hour. It’s requisitely mad to look at, employing as many ‘sporty’ design tropes to an SUV body style as possible – the only thing missing is a massive wing on the back; and somehow, it works. It’s ...

Rolls Royce Cullinan SUV in the works

Rolls Royce has released the first pictures of its Cullinan SUV prototype. The company has said that only the length of the prototype gives clues about the production. The entire car is an engineering mock-up to test the new all-wheel drive transmission and suspension. The prototype, based on a shortened Phantom II, is set for road testing from the second week of April. The company has said that it would “assist Rolls Royce engineers in developing a final suspension system that will deliver the brand's hallmark 'magic carpet' ride not only on the road, but off-road too”. Rolls Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Ötvös had, some time back, confirmed to our sister publication Autocar UK, that the company was developing an all-new four-wheel drive high-bodied Rolls Royce. He had, however, avoided using the word ‘SUV’. The new Rolls Royce is expected to shatter existing price and size ceilings for a SUV, but as per the brand's design boss Giles Taylor, the SUV will be po...

Land Rover Discovery Sport review

Two things. To start with, it’s Land Rover’s replacement for the popular and capable Freelander. It’s also the first of the models from Land Rover’s new Discovery sub-brand, one that will focus on utility in the same vein as the Range Rover line is about luxury. The Discovery Sport was shown as a concept last year and the production version’s styling doesn’t stray too far from the prototype. It’s smart, well proportioned and interesting but doesn’t have the show value of something like an Evoque. Still, there’s a certain honesty to the chunky shape which, if you think about it, more than links the Sport to the Freelander. The Sport is 91mm longer than its predecessor and also sits on a wheelbase that’s grown by 80mm. These increments, and the incorporation of a compact multi-link rear suspension, have allowed Land Rover to fit in a third row of seats, giving the Sport a big advantage over its five-seat competitors – the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Volvo XC60. But Land Rover is being cau...