Rolls Royce Phantom convertible and coupes are available in almost any colour, yet the majority of what i have seen are in.. Black..
is this a lack of thought, or a structured personalization to be discreet?
Discretion and uniformity have a lot to do with it. Rolls-Royce have offered customers any colour of their choice for as long as they've been building their own bodies, but black has always been seen in the carriage trade as conferring an air of elegance and dignity. There is also a theory that, as with dress hemlines, trends in car colours follow the economic climate.
You'd think such considerations would apply less to the more indulgent two-door models, but it seems old habits die hard, and perhaps a sober colour choice is made in an attempt to conceal what is otherwise all-too conspicuous consumption. There is a long-held maxim that black is the colour of choice for the man about town, where most Phantoms roam: set against the London cityscape, a black car blends in while most other colours tend to jar. This is also reflected in shoes, and to a lesser extent suits (where charcoal grey also passes muster).
Of course, attitudes have softened since the 1960s, as people were less inclined to be hide-bound by tradition and personal choice became the order of the day. The Silver Shadow is a case in point: as well as marking something of a departure for Rolls-Royce in the way they made cars, it's also notable that by the 1970s it was more often seen in colours other than Mason's Black, reflecting the zeitgeist of the decade that taste forgot.
The Phantom marked a return to form for Rolls-Royce after the so-so Shadow/Spirit/Seraph era, but the sheer bulk of the car demands a muted colour if the owner is to stand any chance of 'passing unnoticed', and in this context, dark, monochrome coachwork such as mirror-finish black or battleship grey is the next best thing to a cloak of invisibility. I suspect that markets outside the UK favour a more varied pallette – I hear that vivid blues are popular at the marina (though they work less well outside The Ritz, Mr Love) – while the more outlandish bespoke colour options are no doubt the preserve of the new-money bling merchants, whose custom the company can ill-afford to decline.
