- The Rolls-Royce Phantom Syntopia is a collaboration between the automaker and fashion designer Iris van Herpen.
- This special Phantom took four years to craft, with the paint alone requiring months of work.
- This one-of-one model is headed to a private collection in the US this spring.
When life gives you high fashion, it only makes sense to merge that with hyper luxury. While that’s not exactly a novel concept, the folks at Rolls-Royce decided to collaborate with Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen to make one of the most fashionable, and exclusive, Phantoms ever built. Leaning on haute couture fashion, the team in Goodwood turned a lowly Phantom into the Phantom Syntopia.
The star of this show is the interior, which also incorporates a bespoke fragrance. Inspired by Herpen’s 2018 collection, the Phantom Syntopia leans into a water motif. The natural flow of water inspires some of the interior’s style and shape, which you can most obviously see in the car’s “Weaving Water” headliner.
The illuminated Starlight headliner was, according to Rolls-Royce, crafted from a single sheet of leather, which was selected from over 1000 options. If that isn’t enough to drop your jaw, the team finished the headliner with 162 decorative glass petals.
The attention to detail didn’t stop with design, and this special Rolls-Royce predictably has exquisite materials. The front seats are covered in what the company calls magic grey leather, which has a special lustrous finish. Though, the rear seats are even more interesting, covered with a silk-blended fabric that was inspired by light’s reflection on water at night.
The interior might be the Phantom Syntopia’s big draw, but it’s not what you see first. While this one-of-one model lacks the exterior sculpting you’d expect from a team doing coachwork, the sheetmetal does have a special sheen.
According to Rolls-Royce, the liquid noir paint is a one-off finish that took months to master and over 3000 hours of testing and validation. This special topcoat is color shifting and reflects purples, blues, magenta, and gold depending on the light. The same flowing water design adorns the hood, to carry the motif to the exterior.
Like high fashion, this Phantom might not be for everyone. Its opulence might even make it seem a little gauche to some. But the attention to detail makes this one of the more interesting Phantoms to roll out of Goodwood during this car’s generation. According to Rolls-Royce, this special Phantom was four years in the making, which likely carried a hefty price tag being paid by the longtime US customer who will take delivery of the car in May.
Do you think over-the-top bespoke Rolls-Royces will be desirable when (or if) they trade hands? Or will the customization actually hurt the value? Let us know your thoughts below.
