The Commission Of The Century

On the Phantom’s 100th year, Rolls-Royce staged a one-day immersion in October, unveiling its most complex and technically ambitious Phantom Private Collection model.

- Weixian Low

I ARRIVE AT Goodwood expecting spectacle. Yet what I find first is restraint: clipped hedgerows, low rooflines, and the kind of English green that conceals more than it reveals. One could look across the estate and never guess that a carmaker is based here, much less the house that builds Rolls-Royces by hand.

Inside, the choreography is quiet, rather than hushed. A gloved palm lays something impossibly fine onto wood; a laser traces a clean line across leather; fabric and thread draw images that appear only when one leans closer.

I am part of a global media contingent and we are being taken on a plant tour, which unfolds as a sequence of small astonishments. When it comes to the conceptualisation of the Phantom Centenary Private Collection, a designer shows us hand-drawn sketches and how each line is digitised before returning to life as a stitch, etch, veneer, or print. Another team describes techniques that were developed solely for this project: 3D marquetry that rises, 3D ink layering that adds dimension at scales almost too fine for the eye, and 24k gold leaves applied to wood so thin that it reads like light rather than metal.

The figures are remarkable: three years in development, over 40,000 collective hours, and a record number of designers and craftspeople involved. Yet what stands out most is how calm the work feels despite its complexity. One senses pride without performance.