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Louis Vuitton and bespoke automotive workshop Singer have unveiled two heavily customized Porsche 911s at Monterey Car Week in Pebble Beach, California, marking a historic collaboration that merges luxury fashion with high-performance vintage car restoration according to reports from WWD and CarScoops. The partnership pairs the French fashion house’s signature leather craftsmanship and watchmaking expertise with Singer’s air-cooled 911 builds, resulting in two unique vehicles featuring removable mechanical dashboard clocks inspired by Louis Vuitton’s Tambour watch.
The Singer Classic Coupe in Saffron and Cobalt Blue
The first vehicle is a Singer Classic coupe based on a carbon-fiber-bodied 964 dating from the early 1990s, featuring a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter air-cooled flat-six engine paired with a six-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive, and carbon-ceramic brakes according to CarScoops. Finished in saffron and cobalt blue colors referencing both Louis Vuitton’s heritage and Singer’s early Bahama Yellow commissions, the car includes a specially designed roof rack capable of accommodating a bespoke trunk, skis, or a matching surfboard reported by WWD and CarScoops. The cabin features naturally colored leather, yellow stitching, hand-finished metal controls, and tiny Monogram flower details on the seat ventilation eyelets, alongside custom-shaped luggage for the front trunk, a helmet, driving gloves, shoes, and a jacket according to CarScoops.
The Classic Turbo Cabriolet Designed by Nicolas Ghesquière
The second vehicle is a one-of-a-kind turbocharged cabriolet designed by Nicolas Ghesquière, the artistic director of women’s collections at Louis Vuitton, who acquired the John Lautner-designed Wolff house in Los Angeles in 2022 according to WWD. Finished in an ivory white and limestone-inspired Calcaire Lutétien white with precious-wood trim, the cabriolet is inspired by the elegance of classic motorboats and the West Coast outdoor lifestyle, housing a 3.8-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine, a manual transmission, and a whale-tail spoiler according to WWD and CarScoops. Ghesquière stated in a release shared with WWD that automotive design is a lifelong passion, noting that the collaboration offered a magnificent opportunity to explore exceptional automobiles.
The Origins of the Collaboration and Artisan Involvement
The project began when Singer, founded in 2009 by former Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson, made a simple request to commission a detachable dashboard clock based on the Tambour watch according to WWD. Jean Arnault, Louis Vuitton’s watch director, noted that after the design and production of the clock by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton workshops in Switzerland, the partnership expanded to personalize every functional element of the vehicles utilizing the brand’s leather craftsmanship and watchmaking expertise according to WWD. The dashboard clock can be removed from the car and used as a desk clock, representing a co-branded effort that mobilized artisans across Louis Vuitton divisions including watches, trunks, leather goods, fashion, and footwear reported by WWD and CarScoops. Neither company has disclosed the pricing or availability of the two bespoke Porsche 911 models according to WWD and CarScoops.
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