“There’s bespoke and there’s bespoke… and there’s complete one-off bespoke, which is where we fit in.” Chloe Dowsett is demonstrating how she provides Rolls-Royce’s clients with the most bespoke interior detailing service since someone ushered Michelangelo into the Sistine Chapel and asked “Reckon you can make this gaff look mint?” In minutes she turns a chalk outline into the most vivid 2D kingfisher we’ve ever seen, so lifelike that it might leap off its leather canvas and flitter around the room.
Chloe works in the interior trim centre in a super-secret studio deep within Rolls’ Goodwood HQ, off limits to prying eyes and, er, Top Gear photographers. To understand how she wound up there, we need to rewind. Born into a creative family, Chloe spent her childhood painting, drawing and sculpting. Yep: if you dream of being a master craftsperson for the world’s most luxurious car brand, start with papier-mache. She was on Neil Buchanan’s kids TV classic Art Attack, and her certificate for it hangs next to that of her art degree at home. “They are equally as important.” Too right.
