By Guy Jenner
Aston Martin is world renowned for the highest luxury and quality of its interior craftmanship. For anyone who has owned or even travelled in an Aston Martin, you will know that unique smell and feel that is all part of the experience. It instantly sets the tone as you buckle up for a drive.
An Aston Martin still remains a distinctly hand-built car and within the lengthy construction process, it is the vehicle-trimming department that always makes a fascinating stop off on any factory visit. One specialist works on each individual customer interior, ensuring a consistent style throughout. You will find that on the reverse of each interior is a signature from the craftsperson responsible for the beautiful work they have completed. Every artist should sign their work.
Key to the extremely high standard is the leather used – Bridge of Weir®. They are recognised as the world’s finest leathers in the automobile industry and have been supplied in a relationship dating back to the DB5.Bridge of Weir® have over a century of experience in producing leather, suppling the UK Houses of Parliament, Sunseeker yachts, fine furniture manufactures, Burj Al Arab hotel through to the iconic Concorde seats.
Still at the cutting edge of leather development and innovation, Bridge of Weir® and Aston
Martin have dedicated specialists within the Colour & Materials Design team to focus on leather development. Bridge of Weir® hides are sourced from the finest Scottish beef herds and processed with the softest and purest of Scottish water.
Only the finest British heritage breeds are used; such as Charolais, Limousin, Highland, Galloway and Aberdeen Angus, produce rawhides that are the by-product of an industry that demands the highest standards of animal husbandry and welfare. These include high, fresh abundant pastures with space to roam, quality feed and dedicated care. A small side fact, one of the reasons why Bridge of Weir® create such beautiful hides is that their cattle live in fields that are free from barbed wire.
In the production, Bridge of Weir® are the world’s only low carbon leather producer. As low as only one in every hundred hides produced are suitable to dress the interior of an Aston Martin, these using specially developed techniques to process and dye the hides. This delivers the ‘touch see feel and smell’ that gives the required luxury of a truly timeless Aston Martin leather.
Getting the ambience of your Aston Martin cabin just right is a hugely satisfying aspect of ordering a new car. Within our showroom, we have a wonderful array of leather samples covering a huge choice of colours. If the standard palette doesn’t provide precisely what you want, Q Commission will work with Bridge of Weir® to develop a colour, texture or grade of leather that is almost infinite.