Design meets luxury in this Rolls Royce/Hermes Phantom collab with an estimated value of over $6m (without COE)

What costs more than a HDB flat, a condo apartment and a semi-detached house combined? A bespoke Rolls Royce Phantom luxury saloon with interiors designed by Hermes.

News of this unique one-off creation was released just hours ago to the media, creating a wave of excitement among car lovers, fashion followers and design afficionados alike. 

Being one of the world’s most iconic emblems of prestige and luxury, Rolls Royce is certainly no stranger to launching amazingly beautiful, powerful and expensive vehicles, but what makes this Phantom so special is the fact that it was commissioned by one billionaire, who insisted that the English house of Rolls Royce collaborate with France’s most established leather and fashion brand Hermes. 

The billionaire in question happens to be Japanese multi-hyphenate Yusaku Maezawa. Widely known as an entrepreneur, he also happens to be an avid art collector, supercar enthusiast as well as the man behind a SpaceX project aiming to bring artists to the moon by 2023.

Having recently purchased a private jet, Yusaku decided to enlist the help of Rolls Royce in creating a land version of his flying vehicle.

The car’s striking two-tone exterior matches the characteristic green and cream glazes of antique Japanese Oribe ware, of which he is a prominent collector.

The upper part is finished in Oribe Green, a fully bespoke colour created exclusively for Yusaku; and in an unusual move, Rolls-Royce also made the paint available for use on the private jet the Phantom will be paired with.

The Oribe ware-inspired colourway harmoniously continues through the interior, created and realised through a true meeting of minds between Hermes designers and craftspeople in Paris, and the Rolls-Royce Bespoke Collective of designers, engineers and craftspeople at Goodwood in West Sussex.

The interior is finished predominantly in Hermes Enea Green leather, extending to details that include the immediate touch-points between the car and user; for example, the steering wheel, duchess handles, gear selector and the rotary controls for the motor car’s climate settings.

The Hermes leather flows around the upper instrument panel, interior pillars and parcel shelf. It also enrobes less visible surfaces including the glove compartment and luggage compartment lining, centre console, decanter stowage compartment and champagne cooler.

In a sign of the project’s truly collaborative nature, and the two makers’ mutual esteem, the glove compartment lid is embossed with the signature Habillé par Hermès Paris.

Delicate Hermes piping adorns the headrest cushions and calf supports of the rear seats, while soft Seashell White accents and matching lambswool floor mats create a sense of light and space throughout.

Every stitch in the upholstery is done by hand by artisans from Hermes.

As with the making of an Hermes Birkin, the leather used for the Phantom Oribe has to be of the utmost quality. Prior to stitching, every piece of leather pelt also has to undergo rigorous examination to ensure that it is free of scratches or flaws.

 Rumour has it that only one out of every 50 pieces of leather pelt submitted by the tanneries are able to pass the selection process.

Every contact surface, right down to the steering wheel, has been covered in Hermes’ buttery soft Enea green leather.

The interior is also replete with examples of Rolls-Royce Bespoke design and handcraftsmanship. The superb workmanship is complemented by a generous expanse of space, allowing passengers to sit in absolute comfort. 

Hermes brings its distinctive equestrian heritage and innovative craftsmanship know-how to the car, with the leather upholstery created using stitching and edge-painting techniques originally employed by master saddlers.

Open Pore Royal Walnut is additionally applied to the centre and rear consoles and picnic table backs; in another first for Rolls-Royce, the interior features Hermes ‘Toile H’ canvas on the door armrests, centre and rear consoles and, most notably, the signature headliner.

Wooden speaker fret are formed by meticulously perforating the Open Pore Royal Walnut veneer applied to the doors, creating a seamless, textured aesthetic and delicate haptics.

For Phantom’s Gallery, a feature unique to Rolls-Royce, that runs the length of the motor car’s fascia, Hermes commissioned an artwork based on a design by the celebrated French artist and illustrator Pierre Péron (1905–1988) who created many of the house’s iconic scarves.

The work, inspired by the famous Hermes horse motif, is hand-painted on Open Pore Royal Walnut and is presented as though staged in an art gallery, behind glass.

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And while Rolls Royce refuses to provide the exact value of this special commission, one can get a rough idea of the estimated cost by looking at the price of a standard Phantom model ($2 million) and tripling the amount for the cost of bespoke services and materials and having to rope in another world-class brand to help with the finishes.

This article was first published in Home & Decor.