Experienced By Uthman Ray
Louis Vuitton and Singer have paired up for two Porsche 911 design collaborations that treat the sports cars like runway pieces, right down to the stitching. The French luxury house and the Californian atelier known for reimagining classic 911s revealed both builds during Monterey Car Week at a luxury home in Pebble Beach, guided by what Louis Vuitton calls its Art of Travel philosophy.
The project started small. Singer needed a dashboard clock, and Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps workshops in Switzerland took the job, drawing on the shape and engraved letters of the house’s Tambour watch.
“This unique and remarkable adventure began with a request for a dashboard clock for a car reimagined by Singer,” said Jean Arnault, Louis Vuitton Watch Director. “It quickly became apparent to us that this collaboration could extend to the personalization of every functional element of the vehicle.”
That single component pulled the rest of the interior along. Redesigning the clock meant redesigning the instrument cluster around it, with the speedometer, rev counter and gauges reworked in a Cobalt Blue and Orange scheme lifted from the Tambour line. Singer founder Rob Dickinson called the exchange a two-way education.
“The specifications chosen by Louis Vuitton exposed us to techniques and methods developed over decades of experience,” he said. “They trusted us with their esteemed brand, their traditions and their vision, and it was a joy to bring our two worlds together.”
The first car, a Type 964 coupe called the Classic, wears a Saffron and Cobalt Blue livery pulled from Louis Vuitton’s archives. Saffron has sat in the house’s palette for more than a century and a half, paired here with a nod to Bahama Yellow, the shade tied to Singer’s earliest commissions. The scheme traces back to 1924, when Louis Vuitton built travel trunks for Citroën with Cobalt Blue interior reinforcements. A roof rack, shaped to fit the vehicle, carries a surfboard, a set of skis or a trunk. The rear grille hides a geometric L and V motif, and the demonstration tires run in the same cobalt blue. Even the Michelin tires and every piece of rubber trim have been converted to Cobalt Blue.
Inside, the leatherwork carries the story. The cabin is upholstered in a hue drawn from VVT leather, a material Louis Vuitton uses on handles, straps and trunk edging. The seats carry a diamond embossing that echoes the malletage pattern found inside the house’s trunks, finished with yellow saddle stitching. Door handles use the same edge-dyeing technique found on Louis Vuitton bags, and the seat ventilation eyelets are hand-finished with the Monogram Flower motif, repeated on the sun visor and headrests.
Metal fittings, including the knobs, switches, locks and vents, are largely rhodium-plated and hand-finished using techniques closer to watchmaking than car assembly. “Every transition between materials, every metallic reflection, every knurled surface, every mechanical interaction and every graphic element has been meticulously considered,” said Octave Chany, Singer’s Project Lead Designer.
The Classic ships with its own capsule collection, cut from Millésime leather in the car’s Saffron, Cobalt and Yellow. A racing jacket carries three Monogram Flower eyelets across the chest, pulled from the seat design, with a silk lining that repeats the flower where only the wearer sees it. Denim, driving gloves, two shoe options and a carbon fiber jet helmet round out the driver’s kit. Luggage built to the car’s shape includes a helmet bag, a Bisten trunk, a Keepall and front trunk bags, alongside a hand-shaped surfboard and a pair of skis for the roof rack.
The second car takes a different path. Under the direction of Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director of Women’s Collections, the Classic Turbo is a cabriolet finished in Calcaire Lutétien White with brown accents, its interior mixing leather and wood in a style pulled from classic motorboats.
“Automotive design is a passion that has always lived within me,” Ghesquière said. “My collaboration with Singer has been a chance to reconnect with this fascinating world.” He wanted a car open to sun and air, and the wood paneling, extending into the luggage compartment and its teak-inspired deck, gives the cabin a nautical warmth. Gold accents run through the console clock, the ignition key and the gauges, and a leather patch on the steering wheel marks the car as his own.
Its capsule leans the same direction: a made-to-measure suit in parachute silk with V-shaped seams standing in for a logo, braided leather driving gloves and acetate sunglasses hiding a Monogram flower under one lens. The Tambour Automatic watch, in ceramic and yellow gold, pairs with the dashboard clock, and both rest together in a reissued Coffret Trésor case first designed in 1896. Luggage includes the Alma, the Express, the Noé, the Cruiser and a Petite Malle cut from wood matched to the car’s finish.
Louis Vuitton’s automotive ties reach back to 1897, when Georges Vuitton began building trunks designed to strap onto cars, and to 1909, when his sons built their own car to show off the house’s products. The relationship carried through decades of Concours d’Elégance events and the Louis Vuitton Classic Run rallies. Singer, founded in California in 2009 under the banner “A Relentless Pursuit of Excellence,” operates shops in California and England, one building the Classic, the other the Classic Turbo. This year, Singer served as the Central Feature Marque at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Both cars ride on a 964 chassis. The Classic pairs a naturally aspirated 4-liter, air-cooled flat six with a 6-speed manual, Rear Wheel Drive, and carbon-ceramic brakes. The Classic Turbo runs a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter flat six with air-to-water intercooling, a 6-speed manual with selectable drive modes, Rear Wheel Drive, and the same brakes.
“These two automobiles are the result of that relationship, and neither could have been created without it,” said Mazen Fawaz, Singer’s Chief Strategy Officer.
