Designer interview: Iris van Herpen on Rolls-Royce collaboration

Rolls-Royce unveiled a stunning one-off Phantom Extended made in collaboration with futuristic haute couture Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen earlier this week. The car – called Syntopia and commissioned by an unnamed American customer for an undisclosed price in the many millions of dollars – took four years of development and features new elaborate exterior paintwork, especially in its wavy bonnet design.

But the van Herpen touches that make it really stand out are on the inside. These include a laser-cut leather headliner featuring 162 organza petals, a new speckled rear-seat fabric and another example of her signature three-dimensional design encased within the central and passenger side of the dash, the area Rolls-Royce calls its ‘Gallery’.

Known best for her trailblazing and visually-stunning use of 3D printing in haute couture dressmaking, Amsterdam-based van Herpen has attracted global attention for more than a decade and been worn by popstars including Lady Gaga and Björk among many others.

The customer will take delivery of Syntopia in May (and a bespoke van Herpen garment to go with later) butCar Design News had a sneak preview of the amazing car at Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood HQ in late February. We weren’t allowed to sit inside the vehicle itself. Considering it’s one of the top-two most expensive bespoke Phantoms ever created, that’s probably fair enough. But we did have an extended crouch outside by its sill, and also had a good chat with van Herpen in person about her first transport project, what’s on her mood board and the stress of stress-testing organza fabric.

Car Design News: Rolls-Royce designer Celina Mettang said your designs are on her mood board at least once a month. Who’s on your mood board?

Iris van Herpen: Thomas Heatherwick and Zaha Hadid. My way of thinking is definitely inter-disciplinary. I get my inspiration from a lot of different sources beyond fashion alone. Architecture, design, science and nature are all part of my process. I’ve worked on architecture projects before, so doing a car felt very natural. It did not come as a full surprise. But it’s definitely unusual.

CDN: Were you concerned your delicate work might be hard to apply to a car?

IvH: I wasn’t too concerned. Every collaboration is a process and there are always solutions. The three-dimensional aspect of our craftsmanship I knew would be a challenge, but that’s also why our atelier came to work at Rolls-Royce for two weeks after long preparations in our Amsterdam home. So that worked out really fine.

CDN: Were the fabrics used on this car bespoke?

IvH: The [silk-blend] fabric for the rear seats was created for this car and also the fabric underneath the leather headliner. It’s made from a ‘liquid metal’ [woven-nylon] fabric, then the leather is laser-cut to reveal its shiny reflections. The three-dimensional aspect of the headliner is created from a very fine organza with the shimmer and quality of glass, although it’s actually a fabric too.

CDN: What was the trickiest bit of this collaboration?

IvH: I was curious to know if I could push the boundaries in the way I had in my mind, really bringing in the haute couture element. During the process I discovered that Rolls-Royce really wanted to push the boundaries too, so that gave me freedom. Before I started the project I didn’t know that. One process that was nerve-wracking was all the safety and sustainability testing, but it was still exciting to have our craftsmanship tested in this way.

CDN: Cars are designed to be more long-lasting than most fashion items. Did this project make you think differently about that aspect?

IvH: The haute couture looks we create are designed to be kept for a lifetime too, like a fine piece of art, then often handed down to the next person in the family. So there is a similarity. But the stress tests at Rolls-Royce are very different to those we do at our atelier. That was a completely new element and way of looking at durability for me. And in different weather conditions, like in a desert, going from 40 degrees centigrade in the day to minus-10 degrees at night. A car must be able to handle those extremes, but it’s not something we look at. This way of thinking was a learning curve for us.

IvH: I was concerned, yes [she chuckles]. We have done some other interesting projects looking at material durability too, including one for a sky diver, so that was a stress test. We had to look at our craftsmanship in different ways, with an indoor [vertical] wind tunnel simulation of real skydiving. We learned a lot about how to do our stitching and finishes differently on those samples. Another project involved water and that also helped us.

CDN: Was the rear-seat pattern design influenced by water your idea?

IvH: Yes, I really wanted to bring the fluidity of water into the car and the transformative aspect of nature into its details. There’s a delicacy and three-dimensionality to it. When you’re inside the car subtle light reflections bring life to the headliner and to the ‘Gallery’ [in the instrument panel]. The whole experience has a sense of organic-ness I always try to bring into my work.

CDN: Have you been driven inside the car yourself?

IvH: No, I was not allowed [laughs].

CDN: Which Rolls-Royce would you own, if you could choose?

IvH: Ooh, would it be selfish to say this one? I love the Phantom’s proportions.

CDN: What car do you drive yourself and have you customised it?

IvH: I don’t have a car of my own, but my partner has one. It’s not really needed in Amsterdam. Going from A to B there in a car is a really bad decision, although we did actually drive a Rolls-Royce through some of its little streets. It was stressful.

CDN: Have you collaborated with other non-fashion brands before?

IvH: Yes, with Dom Perignon champagne [on a bottle and box design] and with Huawei mobile phones [on the foldable P50 Pocket]. But I’m selective. I don’t like too many constraints. I prefer a blank sheet of paper.