Cadillac’s 1974 Interiors Were Wow, Something: Cold Start

You know what I love? Exuberance. I like when something, whatever it is, really commits to the bit and just goes for it. In the automotive world, this absolutely does happen, but it’s kind of strange how different eras tend to focus on specific aspects of a upon which to saturate in the frothy liquid of exuberance. Right now, for example, I think you could argue the exuberance is being lavished on electronics for cars. In the 1970s, though, at least for Cadillac, I think the target was interiors, and, specifically, interior textile choices. Because, holy crap, just look at this.

Modern car interiors are generally comfortable, but they all seem to edge to the funereal, tone-wise. They tend to be somber and gray and sort of understated, and while there are exceptions, the baseline does still feel like that. It wasn’t always this way, as I’m about to show you in this 1974 Cadillac brochure.

I grabbed some of the pictures of interior options from the brochure, and I think it’s worth noting that not only are they visually wild, they all seem to have evocative names, and, I bet, stories that were pinned up on boards in the interior design studios of Cadillac.

Let’s start with this one, for the Fleetwood:

Look at that! This was a crushed velour pattern Cadillac called “Medici” after the powerful Florentine banking/politics/pope-making family of the late middle ages. And it definitely evokes old Italy, complete with whatever that floral/botanical shape is there on the backrest. Are those acanthus leaves? Still, holy crap, that’s a lot of classiness to work into a seat that’s very likely doomed to be saturated full of cigarette smoke and casserole farts.

This is one of my favorites on the Coupé de Ville up there, the Maharajah pattern. Wow! I suppose it’s Indian textile-inspired, rendered in a verdant array of greens, and capable of making your Caddy with its big, smog-choked V8 like your own mobile Taj Mahal. Amazing.

This pinstriped look is called “Mardi Gras,” though I’m not really sure I think that name fits? Whatever its called, I kind of love it, especially with how the lines get slight angled on the door card upholstery there. The lines are just irregular enough to keep things interesting. What’s that on the seat? Oh! Opera glasses, of course, what else could they be?

Look at this – Cadillac calls that ornate, floral pattern “Mimosa,” after the names of the five drinks grandma had at brunch the other day before she started saying all that stuff that sounded racist enough that you had to leave, in a hurry. This is an extremely effective pattern to hide stains, which is ironic, because I think it’s also the one most likely to be permanently covered in plastic.

This is also Medici, but in dark blue, and it changes the tone of the interior pretty dramatically. The text also mentions other fabric types called Potomac (for more “conservative tastes”) and “Morocco” which is just noted as being “ornate.”

Just to compare, here’s a modern car interior I just grabbed from our extensive image library:

That’s from a BMW M3, according to the filename. There is some attempt to make it interesting with the patterning of the cushioned areas in that sort of faceted kaleidoscope pattern, but holy hell, did BMW forget to pay the color bill? Would any color in there have killed them? Jeezis.