Welcome to Goodwood. Here, the cheeky grass teases a delightfully English sky with its greenness. Here, all is calm, rural and voluptuous serenity. And yet, if you listen closely, in the distance you’ll hear the whimper of an engine taking its very first breath.

Welcome to Rolls Royce.

Push open the workshop door and allow  yourself to be awed by the silhouette of a Phantom. Sixty pairs of hands work in silence to bring it to life. And Mark… A pillar, a smiling man in his fifties, the hero of a feat he has accomplished without batting an eyelid several times a day for years. Mark paints, but not just any old thing. He is a “coachline painter” – a profession that sounds so right, yet so enigmatic. Mark paints a single line along the almost twenty-foot side of the sacred monster. Freehand. No ruler. No props. Without a tremor, a sneeze or a slip-up. In one go. And when he’s up for a challenge, Mark paints twin parallel lines, always freehand. No ruler. No props. No trembling. When Mark is under the weather, no one can replace him. They wait. Because that’s what luxury is all about, taking your time. In the name of perfection. Some will grumble that the hand is obsolete, that a robot would do better. At Rolls Royce, they laugh – good old British humour:

“Every detail tells a story, and every story inspires greatness”.

That’s their reply: the beauty of the gesture serves the feat, the ultimate creation. I call that craftsmanship.

Craftsmanship lies at the heart of luxury – a fact too often forgotten. How many self-proclaimed connoisseurs swear that luxury is but a cunning trap for the overly wealthy? That a brand name on a bag is enough to justify its price? Nonsense! The name is the seal of a job well done. At Berluti, patina is applied by hand over the course of ninety minutes. Each shoe is unique – even within a pair. At Christofle, it’s common knowledge that it takes a hundred hands shape a piece of cutlery; at Lalique, eighty to make a vase. At Chanel, it takes 130 hours to create a tweed jacket, and each of the million bottles of Chanel No. 5 sold each year is hand-sealed with a baudruche membrane. Yes, a million – and they don’t shy away from quantity. “Each luxury object should have some part, even small but spectacular, that is handmade,” assert Kapferer and Bastien. “This is the dimension that makes it stand out from the series, from the world without surprises of the factor.” A crucial touch that even AI cannot replicate. Because luxury is not about giving up the essential – and the essential lies in the hand that creates it.

Behind every creation is a plethora of first names. Here, at Rolls Royce, Mark draws the lines and sharpens his squirrel-hair brushes, Mary has designed the perforations that draw clouds on the armrests. Elsewhere, Emma has conceived a bag with an atypical handle that demands eighty-five minutes of Martine’s work, just for the braiding. At Hermès, each bag is signed by the person who makes it. A true masterpiece. Luxury is a “chanson de geste” that recounts the exploits of ordinary heroes with extraordinary fingers. As Kapferer and Bastien rightly emphasise,

“the manufacturing of the product by an artisan is an integral part for the dream and is a major component of it from the very beginning”.

To that we might add that nothing here is impersonal – everything is a communion.

The teams help each other and stick together, striving for a common sublime. For yes, the responsibility is momentous. Drawing a line is not for the light-hearted. Mark says it best – he is the last to touch the car before it reaches the client. Think about it: can he afford a mistake? With one clumsy stroke, he could ruin the work of his esteemed colleagues. The same worry haunts Régis, who inspects a Birkin in porosus leather before it’s placed in its box. No hand must leave its mark, or cause damage – or everyone’s labour is lost. Patience, teamwork, and community. Luxury is the praise of unity. One for all, and all for one – a rather French motto, isn’t it?

Constance, Eric, Emilie and Isaure

At The Wind Rose, craftsmanship is at the heart of everything we do.

First, because we talk about it. Gone are the days when sales training was separate from product training. You can only sell what you truly understand. And to speak convincingly, the seller must have felt the emotion – must have seen Mark paint his lines, Martine braid her handle, and ideally, even tried it themselves. There’s nothing like a quick trip to the workshop and a few botched stitches to understand how difficult it is. Craftsmanship is central to our work because we constantly recommend it be integrated into sales training. Before, after, digitally, in person, in the workshop, even at the tannery if need be. There is no storytelling without craftsmanship – and as you know, stories are what we live for. And craft is our method. Just as Mark draws a unique line for each of his clients, we tailor our materials to each of ours. You can’t transport a line from one car to another. Why should our writings be any different? Your House is unique, as are your know-how and your emotion. We receive it, analyse it, dissect it, transcribe it, and place it back in your hands. With us too, behind every stitch hides a first name. Constance shapes the projects, Émilie hems the sales ceremonies, Éric embroiders the client relationship, Aurélie sculpts your savoir-faire narrative, Claire-Marine attaches the digital label, Fanny and Alex sharpen their brushes for the final flourish. Fourteen hands and sometimes more, embroidering, topstitching, smoothing and making you unique.

Luxury is a “chanson de geste”, telling tales of exploits. So do our training courses, otherwise how can we honour them? Craftsmanship is our great passion.

And to finish on a high note, what better than to let Mark move you… You will never see lines the same way again.
Discover his talent here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS4EwPHhYxg

And you – what are the most beautiful gestures of craftsmanship you know?