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John Mahoney22 Mar 2015
NEWS

Paul Smith designs one-off Defender

British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith creates a special Defender to commemorate the iconic Land Rover’s final phase of production

Sir Paul Smith has teamed up with Land Rover’s Special Vehicle operations (SVO) to celebrate the final production run of the Defender that first went on sale back in 1948.

Celebrating 67 years of the Defender, Sir Paul, who’s more famous for his stripy shirts, created his one-off Land Rover to have 27 different exterior colours.

Inside, there are yet more splashes of colour and a mixture of leather and fabrics plus a hand-painted picture of a bee that’s said to reference the Defender’s countryside heritage.

Sir Paul, who owns an old Land Rover at his Italian home, said that his design was inspired by the army, navy, air force, fire services and coastguard that have relied on the Defender over the years to carry out their duties.

Speaking about his design, Sir Paul said: “I wanted deep, rich colours, but at the same time, I wanted them to work together yet be surprising.”

The one-off Defender is likely to become part of Land Rover’s heritage collection.

Production of the Defender ceases this December. No date has been set for the arrival of its replacement.

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