The colour of money with Bentley

So, what colours should you be considering for your next car? What’s trending, what’s going to last the distance, and where do car brands look in the world for inspiration? We sat down with the global queen of luxury colour inspo: Andrea Jensen, Head of Colour, Material and Finish (CMF) and Bespoke at Bentley, to delve into the world of hues, tones, tinctures and palettes.

“We get inspired by the colour of everything - dresses, hats, your glasses, little stones on the beach - every stone looks different with a patina”, says Andrea, explaining the way she and her team of designers work at Bentley. The British luxury car marque has always been at the forefront of interior and exterior design, with an aesthetic that ranges from bold, contemporary and surprising combinations of colour to calm, graceful and timeless matches. They have created modern twists on traditional hues such as British racing green and navy blue, to exciting new tones of pink, purple and yellow. Customers can choose from 112 paint options and a mind-blowing 46 million configurations. There are 12 standard satin finishes for the exterior, and also paint fades, where the colour changes as you walk around the car. The sky, in other words, is the limit.

And then of course there is the Mulliner division, which can match any colour you fancy, from your nail varnish to your sofa. It also offers pearlescent finishes and colours that can only be hand painted.

On top of the exterior paint colours, and the hues you choose for the interior, there is the colour of the stitching to be considered, alongside the tone of the wood or carbon fibre that you select. It’s a mind-boggling array of decisions to be made, and, given the timeframe of seven years between conception of a new model and it going on sale, Andrea’s team need to start colour and material development five to 10 years out from the on-sale date. How on earth do they make decisions that far out?

“We look at palettes, global and social trends. We speak to marketing colleagues. We have in our guts which colours are coming. We go to trend fairs and suppliers. Especially the Milan furniture fair - all the luxury brands are there from Louis Vuitton to Armani. Bentley is there with its Luxury Living. When Bentley Home [Bentley’s interior design division which offers furniture, lighting and soft furnishings] give us a forecast, that’s good. In Milan, you go through the stores and the villas; it’s not only the furniture there. For example, a few years ago they created little flowers from the leftover leather at Louis Vuitton and it was a great colour and idea…”

How do they translate those colours to cars? “We start with interior and exterior design sketches, mood boards. For example, for the Supersports [Bentley’s latest model], we look into our heritage and past; we take Mildred as our inspiration”. Mildred was the code name for the Supersports model while it was in development and refers to Mildred Petre, born in 1895, who was a record breaker on land, and sea and in the air as a racing driver, a powerboat racer and a pilot. In 1929, she drove a Bentley 4½ Litre around a circuit in France, solo, for 24 hours. In so doing, she averaged almost 90mph and established a new endurance record – a phenomenal achievement by today’s standards but even more incredible in the 1920s. She went on to become of the Bentley Girls.

What a wonderful way to bring the story around women and colour in cars full circle back to the dynamics and power: it’s all important to the driver, be they male or female, and the idea that one aspect of a car (performance, say) is more important or credible than another (I give you colour), is ludicrous.

What is the gender split in the CMF team? “We are all women”, says Andrea, albeit there are men in the wider design team, with whom they liaise, and there are more men showing interest in colour and material. It’s a shame that we’re not there yet though, just as it’s a shame engineering teams are predominantly men: the industry needs more balance in both areas. “It’s always men on [car design] mood boards as race drivers”, says Andrea, “so Mildred is fascinating - what would a modern Mildred look like, what will she conquer and where would she be?”

One of the best aspects of Bentley’s colour collection are the names the team gives them. It’s not just red, it’s Cricketball; it’s not just green, it’s Cumbrian Green. According to Andrea, “there was a designer with an old cricketball on his desk, polished and damaged; it had such a nice aura, used with love. That’s where the name came from.” It’s almost poetry.

And what about creating colours for cars that sell globally, when different countries have different preferences and trends? “In Asia, countries such as South Korea, everything is black and silver outside but bold inside. In the Middle East, it’s pure and clean on outside - white and beige and light gold - but bright orange or Tiffany Blue on inside.”

There is no age split in demand - “it’s a personality thing not an age thing”. The UK is “getting bolder” with its colours, with “more greens and blues and poppy colours. Dealers want the bright colours now… Retro is a big thing - taking colour from the past and give it a modern twist.”

I had assumed Bentley created different colours for different models, given that a Bentayga SUV, for example, is comprised of big upright slabs of metal, while a Continental is lower, sleeker and has more lines, shadows, dips and curves. But I’m wrong. “All the colours go across all car lines”, explains Andrea. “With a new model, we always do a couple of new colours and lock it in for that car, then after a couple of years we unlock it for the rest of the car line.”