Louis Vuitton and Singer Turn a Porsche 911 Into Two Trunks With an Engine
What began as a request for a dashboard clock ended with two bespoke Porsche 911s, one designed by Louis Vuitton's own artistic director, that treat the car itself as a piece of luggage.
Louis Vuitton partnered with Singer Vehicle Design, the California outfit famous for reimagining the Porsche 911, to build two bespoke cars that treat the automobile as luggage with an engine. The Classic, a coupe in saffron and cobalt blue, carries a custom roof rack built for Louis Vuitton trunks, a hand-crafted surfboard, and a matching set of skis. The Classic Turbo, a cabriolet finished in Calcaire Lutetien white, went to Louis Vuitton's own artistic director, Nicolas Ghesquiere, who traded the surf theme for gold accents, precious wood, and design cues lifted from classic motorboats.
The interiors carry the collaboration further than a livery job usually does: hand-crafted metal replaces the plastic on knobs, switches, and vents, the leather seats carry Louis Vuitton's yellow saddle-stitch seaming, and the upholstery is worked with monogram flower eyelets and malletage diamond patterns. The whole project, according to Singer Vehicle Design founder Rob Dickinson, started somewhere else entirely, with a request for Singer to help build a mechanical dashboard clock inspired by Louis Vuitton's Tambour watch that could double as a desk clock. "What started with a dashboard clock somehow ended with two Louis Vuitton-fied Porsche 911s," is how the finished project got summed up.
Neither car is for sale; these are one-off commissions, and the appeal is exactly that. A Singer restomod is already a scarce, made-to-order object before a fashion house gets involved, and Louis Vuitton attaching its name to two of them signals a brand chasing proximity to that kind of exclusivity more than it wants a retail product out of the deal. Watch director Jean Arnault called it a case of two organizations with "shared belief in craftsmanship and authenticity," which is corporate-speak for: neither side needed the money, they just wanted the halo.
More photos
Source: Singer Vehicle Design (press release)
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
