“I was looking for a green capable of giving me optimism and serenity, and I found it. It is a color that did not previously exist and that, above all, had never been used for a car that was already deluxe by nature, but which now—thanks to the color—has become unique.”
Long before the present times, which have made green a symbol of the fight against “climate change”, as early as the early 2000s Carlo Rampazzi had already sensed the extraordinary energy that green emits and which contains in its DNA the solar power of yellow and the sidereal depth of blue.
Perhaps also because he was born under the “naturalist” Taurus sign, the architect chose green for the car of his dreams. It certainly could not be a standard shade: the choice fell on a fresh Lemon green, selected by Rampazzi in England together with the Bentley team.
He had a four-door sedan painted (the model is the Continental Flying Spur), which reaches 559 horsepower with a top speed of 312 km/h. The car was carefully customized in its color even in the interior, becoming not only a sculptural object, but a projection of its owner’s style and of his way of experiencing travel and life.
“After months of trials and sampling, I fell in love with this magnetic color, which makes me happy just to look at and that I feel is aligned with my personality,” the designer explains. The chromatic association with citrus peel is quite evident, but Rampazzi’s Lemon green is much more than that: “It is neither metallic nor satin, neither cold nor warm: it is a shade that changes depending on the light and the weather, on sun reflections and raindrops. It suggests that this car of mine is a bit like moods, encounters, emotions that—fortunately—are never the same.”
It is not uncommon to meet Rampazzi not far from his studio in Ascona, stepping out of his Bentley wearing a pair of hand-dyed leather ankle boots that his friend, shoe designer Olga Berluti, created to measure for him, inspired precisely by the color of the bodywork.
It is equally frequent that, during long “in-car” journeys, the architect carries over his shoulder another of his “small, great obsessions”: the apple holder that in 2003 he had commissioned from the Commandes spéciales atelier of Hermès, following one of his own designs, and which over time has become an icon of the famous Parisian Maison.
“It was a period when I was on a diet, and snacks had to consist only of apples,” recalls the architect. “I experienced that prescription with discomfort, and I found it unpleasant to have to carry fruit to the office in the usual sad little box. That’s why I decided to turn the snack moment into an aesthetic and playful ritual.”
Thus was born, from Rampazzi’s visionary imagination and the unsurpassed savoir-faire of Hermès artisans, the Lemon green leather pouch, complete with leaves and stem, lined inside with a silver shell (which, incidentally, is also an antibacterial material). The whole piece is completed by a long shoulder strap and a small knife, to always have everything needed for a colorful and healthy snack at hand.
Carlo Rampazzi’s apple holder has remained a one-off piece, which until 2020 Hermès exhibited in numerous shows around the world.
(Written by Fiammetta Bonazzi)