Ferrari x Cool Hunting: An Unexpected Collaboration Embodying Novelty, Craftsmanship & Elegance
WORDS BY,
MATTHEW BOCCHI
Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
Ferrari offered Cool Hunting founders, Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten the remarkable opportunity to customize a Ferrari Roma through their Tailor Made program
with the freedom to explore bespoke personalization in a new way—they graciously accepted the invitation.
5 MINS READ TIME
The Ferrari Tailor Made program allows customers to design the car of their dreams, personalizing every intricacy to their tastes and desires. Customers typically pick from one of the three collections offered as a starting point and are assisted by a team of Ferrari designers in utilizing elements from each collection.
These collections—Scuderia, Classica, and Inedita—individually reflect Ferrari’s luxurious DNA: the racing soul, the heritage, and the innovation, respectively. However, Ferrari allowed Rubin and Orensten to achieve the highest level of customization in the Tailor Made program, shifting away from the standard collections and tailoring their Roma in unprecedented, bespoke ways.
The Cool Hunting power duo pushed the boundaries for this project, implementing new materials, colors, and finishes in this one-of-a-kind bespoke Roma while retaining Ferrari’s customary innovation. The two had just concluded an expansive trip in Japan, working on multiple project design collaborations with various Japanese artisans.
Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
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Instinctively, the inspiration for implementing Japanese design into the Ferrari project seemed like a brilliant idea. Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari Chief Designer, met Rubin and Oresten at the Ferrari Tailor Made showroom in NYC and was also inspired by the parallels between Italian and Japanese cultures: particularly their design philosophy and the appreciation of quality and generational craftsmanship. With that, an unforeseen love story between Japanese and Italian craftsmanship was born.
The collaborators were heavily inspired by the indigo-dyeing treatments from Tokushima, Japan, and agreed on indigo for the Roma’s color scheme. The dye comes from a green plant, which, when harvested and fermented for three months, becomes sukomo. Sukomo is then mixed with lye, sake, and limestone powder, naturally producing antibacterial properties. Ferrari and Cool Hunting wanted to honor the dyeing craftsmanship and created the exterior color “Indigo Metal” for this car.
This vibrant yet sophisticated color provides a striking elegance that accentuates the muscular lines of the Roma. It also enhances the purity of the Roma’s shape and reflects a liquid and silky effect throughout the highlights and shades.
The car’s interior also incorporates the indigo theme, showcasing sakiori fabrics on the carpets and within the seat trim inserts. Sakiori is a complex material with historical significance, as it is one of the world’s oldest examples of upcycling. In Japan, upcycling is an elaborate process in which worn-out kimonos are disassembled, the fabrics are sliced into strands, and then rewoven. For this Ferrari Roma, Hajime Shoji sourced the sakiori fabrics from two vintage kimonos, both dark indigo but with different patterns, producing a beautiful, blended texture. In addition, this specific sakiori required an innovative solution accomplished through weaving the sakiori with high-tensile nylon—instead of traditional silk or cotton—as a more durable fiber was needed to meet automotive standards.
Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
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Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
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Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
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This love story between Japanese and Italian craftsmanship highlights its synchronized artisanship with the production of the headliner—exclusively embraced when sitting in the car. The lining comprises two separate leather hides, dyed in indigo through the Rokestu method—a multi-layered wax resist-dyeing method dating back to the 8th century—forming repeated patterns around a single color. Ultimately, the hides were sent to Italy, where they were cut into strips and then handwoven together by Italian artisans through a style known as intreccio. This created an extraordinarily artistic headliner, harmoniously representing the Japanese craft while employing an Italian weaving tradition. The interior door handles are also exclusively viewed inside the car and are inspired by Tsukami, the ancient art used for wrapping the handles of Katana swords in Japan. Italian artisans weaved the door handles in this traditional Japanese manner.
The marriage between Japanese and Italian craftsmanship culminates with the use of copper throughout various interior accents and the wheels, offering a palpable contrast to the indigo palette. The Cool Hunting founders are the first to personalize the ‘canceletto’—Ferrari’s term for the Roma’s gear shift gate and lever. They were inspired by a visit to the Kyoto-based company Kaikado, a multi-generational family business known for their skillfully crafted copper tea canisters. Ferrari found the copper-plated canceletto design to be visionary, as it is one of the more eccentric interior design inspirations.
The last piece of Japanese inspiration is the integration of the crest found on the center armrest and door sills. Designed by Kyogen, it is a custom-made “kamon” used in Japan to denote one’s origin and status. The kamon used in the car represents a wheel from an ox-drawn carriage—used by aristocrats in the Heian period—with the second element being eight waves that encircle the wheel. In this instance, the numeric theme of eight is binary as it is viewed by the Japanese as a symbol of good luck while also symbolizing the eight pistons of the Roma V8 engine.
Ferrari representatives acknowledged how unusual some of the customizations were because some of the materials are not typically used in the automotive industry. Ferrari allows only so much personalization through the Tailor Made program to maintain the prestige and tradition of the Ferrari brand. It is safe to say that this car pushed the boundaries and is the pinnacle example of the bountiful personal touches accessible through the program. The Cool Hunting Ferrari Roma is a beautiful testament to the clashing of diverse cultures and creative powers—and how such a dynamic collaboration can result in an artistic piece of machinery.
Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
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Photo: Courtesy of Ferrari/Cool Hunting
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The Cool Hunting pair sought to highlight generational craftsmanship and successfully executed that vision, resulting in “one of the most customized Ferraris to ever leave the factory.” The collaborative project took over two years to complete and is now being displayed in the Ferrari Tailor Made showroom in NYC before touring the United States in hopes of finding its future owner.