Paul Smith and Land Rover

British designer Paul Smith has collaborated with Land Rover to create a bespoke Defender. Paul Smith worked closely with Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) design team who is on hand to fulfill individual customer commissions and personalisation to create a unique vehicle, built entirely to his own specification. With guidance from Land Rover’s Design Director and Chief Creative Officer, Gerry McGovern, he was able to realise his uniquely personal version of this global automotive icon.

There are 27 different colours used on the exterior panels, all of which were chosen by  Paul Smith. Taking inspiration from the British countryside, as well as colours historically seen on Defenders used by the Armed Forces, he says, “I wanted deep rich colours, but at the same time, I wanted them to work together yet be surprising.” In order to achieve the look he wanted, Paul gave the SVO team a set of Pantone colour references, which were then mixed specially for this vehicle.

Further adding to the vehicle’s bespoke design, Paul worked with Land Rover to ensure that the interior stayed true to his vision. “This is a complete one-off; I wanted to give this Defender a feeling of luxury, so I used a mix of leather and fabric for the seats. I actually used the fabric that I design for Maharam, the American upholstery company”. The vehicle features lots of special Paul Smith touches.