11-05-2025
Meet the artisans bringing the craft back to bespoke car interiors
Cars are increasingly labelled 'computers on wheels', mainly due to bewildering technical sophistication and a perceived lack of traits that are invariably related to 'character'. So you might think that the current industry recruitment imperative would be to attract computer geeks and digital artists.
But you would be wrong: the luxury car makers are scouring the planet for, wait for it... tattoo artists, embroiderers, florists and people who make saddles for horses.
Why? Despite the world's financial woes and the impact of Storm Donald, premium marques are seeing strong demand, with customers specifying bespoke features that no computer or 3D printer can make look like the work of an artisan.
But such skilled craftspeople are in short supply, so Rolls-Royce, for one, is getting creative with sourcing its artistic resource.
The company's flagship Phantom, in its centenary year, starts at about £435,000, customers specifying personalisation amounting to an additional six- or seven-figure bill.
I took £600,000-worth of Phantom to Woodend Mill near Mossley, Greater Manchester, home to dozens of small creative businesses, to get the reactions of a leatherworker and an embroiderer. Each of them runs training courses aimed at keeping artisanal and craftsmanship skills alive, along with a tattoo artist who has to get it 100 per cent right every time.
The Phantom was modestly laden with luxury add-ons, but still featuring hand-crafted luxury beyond anything most people will experience.
Inspiration
I also showed them images of Rolls-Royce's most recent bespoke Phantom Cherry Blossom, created for a Japanese client wanting to recreate Sakura, the short-lived blossom season, as an interior ambience.
They marvelled at the quality of the work in the Phantom, then intently examined the Phantom Cherry Blossom images. Penny-drop looks were exchanged as it dawned on each they likely had the skills to contribute to such cars – or to train others.
Rolls-Royce has employed at least one former tattoo artist. Tattooing is a sometimes maligned career choice, nevertheless requiring artistic talent and accuracy.
The tattoo artist
Bogdan Voda, 39, runs Tattoo Hut Studio in Woodend Mill. He came to the UK from Romania in 2009 to work in nursing, but in 2012 started turning his creative interest into a business, consequently winning awards.
His skills and traits suddenly strike you as highly Rolls-Royce-relevant, given the brand's meticulous standards: 'I am detail-obsessed. I simply cannot make a mistake when I'm tattooing a client,' he said, drawing the comparison between working on human skin and high-quality leather as he closely examines the interior and exterior detail of the Phantom.
'That [Cherry Blossom] Rolls-Royce, it's very like the tattooing industry; we work with bespoke pieces, people tell us their vision, their ideas, and we create unique designs for them. That is the similarity.
The embroiderer
Victoria Merness, 58, owns The Little House of Victoria, creating works of embroidery for sale and running training workshops. She cast her professional eye over the interior images of the Cherry Blossom limousine, including its Japanese Tatami-style embroidered headlining finish.
'Wow. I work and tutor in the Japanese techniques of Sashiko and Boro, with Japanese threads and fabrics. I could probably do that,' she said.
She was a furniture buyer for a major retailer but lost her job during the pandemic, so she decided to turn her interest in arts and crafts into an earner, going to university and qualifying as a teacher.
She worries for the future of artisan and crafts skills. 'In my workshops I've only had a handful of people in their teen years,' she said. 'It frustrates me that there's so few youngsters and that arts is underfunded and consistently taken off the curriculum. In 2023, the creative industries contributed £124 billion to the UK economy.'
Championing artisanship
The luxury car industry contributes about £80 billion to the UK economy and supports at least 450,000 jobs.
'We need a brand like Rolls-Royce to champion artisanship,' said Merness. 'We live in a world of robotically-produced things, so for the company to see the value in artisan skills that have taken years to hone is significant.'
The design and embroidery of the Phantom Cherry Blossom spanned six months; three weeks alone to embroider more than 250,000 stitches.
The embroidered cherry tree's Tatami stitch is an ancient Japanese weave technique, with cherry blossom flowers formed of satin-stitch petals. Merness is mesmerised by its quality.
One hundred years ago, when the first Rolls-Royce Phantom was introduced, artisans and craftsmen and women abounded, their skills the norm, honed and developed across centuries.
Today's elite car manufacturers can deploy techniques allowing customers to specify just about anything in terms of design. Some one-off Rolls-Royce cars run up £20 million-plus price tags.
Dreams into reality
But the issue is turning digital dreams into reality. And that involves hand-made finishes to wood, textiles and leather.
Jason Stocks-Young, 55, runs courses from Diamond Awl Leather Workshop. At 40, he felt uninspired working in a big London digital marketing agency but sensed he had found himself during an arts and crafts show visit.
'One stall that caught my eye was all this leather handcrafted stuff – and saddles. And I think, 'That's amazing'. I asked the guy on the stand, Peter Laight, if he could teach me; he said yes. I felt I'd always had it in me. He was happy to share all these skills,' said Stocks-Young.
'My mindset was very much the idea of teaching it. It has been a really good journey, and it continues. I'm always learning.'
He believes luxury brands should look to the UK's regions for talent: 'North of Watford, in places like Lancashire, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, there's such a pool of talent, it's just getting lost.'
Can the Government do more?
But, he says, he sees perhaps only one 'great young talent' every six months passing through his workshops. He questions whether the UK Government is sufficiently supporting arts and crafts and helping generate a pipeline of talent, given the potential in the luxury industries.
He looks to both education and modern-day youth to step up, and education at all levels to identify and support the artisanal potential in students, adding that young creative talent needs to adopt a different mindset.
'Young artisans and craftspeople need to have dedication, commitment. That means working with a disciplined mindset, not thinking about what they have on tonight, for instance,' he said.
'Focus on one thing, don't be multitasking on millions of things. Yes, I do blame social media, all these distractions for kids who have the ability, to focus and reach that high level, and end up somewhere like Rolls-Royce.'
Striving for perfection
Phil Fabre de la Grange, Head of Bespoke, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars dangled the carrot – or should that be carat? – to a new generation of artisans.
'The team behind Rolls-Royce's creations is as eclectic as the marque's offerings. Their backgrounds and life stories vary remarkably – from those with highly-specialised professional training in their field, including those who completed their apprenticeship at the home of Rolls-Royce, to individuals who have pursued their passions after careers in completely different sectors,' he said.
'This diversity of experience and expertise allows the Rolls-Royce team to bring a unique blend of skills and perspectives to their craft. One thing that unites us all is a common 'can-do' mindset – striving for perfection to bring our clients' dreams to reality.'
And perhaps create dreams for young people with talents for which they didn't realise there was a demand.
