Cadillacs of the 1970s offered a number of really wild upholstery options, but this one has to be one of the most eye-popping interiors ever seen in that decade of baroque fabrics and oversaturated colors. Let’s take a closer look at this 1975 Eldorado’s dazzling Dark Crimson “Monticello” velour ensemble and its rivals for the title of “decade’s loudest Cadillac upholstery.”
We’re all aware that exterior colors for new cars have been in the doldrums for some time now. For instance, while the 2026 Cadillac CT5 sedan offers nine exterior color choices, four of those are “achromatic” colors (white/gray/silver/black). There are a couple of actual colors, but there’s certainly nothing on the list like the gleaming cherry soda hue of this 1975 Eldorado’s extra-cost Cerise Firemist paint. (Incidentally, despite its lustrous sheen, this was not a metallic paint — Firemist colors used flakes of borosilicate glass rather than metal to make them shine.)
Today’s interior choices are even fewer than the exteriors. In a 2026 CT5, you can have Jet Black, two shades of beige (Sahara Beige and Maple Sugar), and Sedona Sauvage (which in another era would probably have been called “Saddle Brown”) — all in leather, all with black accents. The choices are tasteful, restrained, and seeming high-quality (three things that couldn’t always be said of Cadillacs past), but colorful? Not so much.
So, we pop open the door of this Cerise ’75 Eldorado, and …
Yowie! It hits you like a baseball bat, doesn’t it? In this era, Cadillac offered some vividly colored leather upholstery choices — bright red, orange, yellow, green, and more. However, the division’s cloth upholstery options also kept getting more and more ornate, and I think this “Dark Crimson” Monticello velour might well have been the apex.
What makes it so startling is the combination of color and pattern — it looks like a stylized forest fire in some older Russian animated movie. This is the kind of thing that makes even people who don’t normally comment on automotive styling say things like, “That sure is some upholstery, buddy.”
The questions I end up asking myself about particularly outré interior options are threefold: Should this exist at all? If so, should it be in a car? And if so, should it be in THIS car? This time, all I can do is throw up my hands and mutter, “I guess!” I don’t even know that I dislike this combination, but it is a lot to take in.
If you had a piece of furniture upholstered in this fabric, you’d have to design and decorate the entire room around it so as to not make it seem wildly out of place. That at least is simpler in a car than a home or office: Cadillac offered various color-keyed interior components to go with the various upholstery choices, so the carpets, dashboard, steering wheel, door panels, and armrests of this car are as red as the crimson upholstery.
Even the fake wood band on the steering wheel and the molded woodgrain trim seems to fit, although the obvious plasticity of the “carved” wood still strikes me as tacky. Like it or loathe it, this interior does seem of a piece stylistically.
I first saw those pictures months ago, and they’ve stuck with me. Was this the loudest of Cadillac’s various loud cloth interiors? It might well have been. The Monticello upholstery wasn’t substantially more restrained in other colors either.
However, let’s also consider some other possible contenders for the title of “loudest Cadillac cloth interior”:
The 1975 Monticello upholstery was certainly not the first time Cadillac had offered incredibly ornate pattern cloth. The Majesty cloth in this 1972 De Ville was just as intricate — maybe more so. However, the pattern was muted somewhat by the more subdued colors available, which ran to Dark Blue, Medium Maize, and this Medium Dark Covert.
Sitting in this car, you’d notice that the fabric was patterned, but you’d have to look at it closely in the right light to see the pattern clearly. In dimmer light, it just looks mottled, and it doesn’t leap out at you the way the Dark Crimson Monticello upholstery does.
During this period, Cadillac also got big into plaids, like this apparently popular Metamora pattern, offered for several years. I strongly dislike plaid in nearly all cases, and I think it looks completely out of place in a Cadillac. This was the kind of upholstery that belonged in a Vega, not a De Ville.
However, while I think the Metamora plaid looks bad and looks cheap (it clearly didn’t wear well, which was not in its favor either), I can’t say it seems particularly loud, even in orange.
Velour was very “in” throughout much of the ’70s. Cadillac was a little slow off the mark in the crushed velour wars, but they got in on the action in 1974. The De Ville d’Elegance package offered variations on this striped two-tone velour for several years; it was called “Manhattan” in 1975.
If it came across as excessive, I think that had less to do with the pattern or colors than with the sheer amount of it — with the D’Elegance package, the velour upholstery was slathered over the door panels as well as the seats.
I’ve previously talked about the overwrought interior excess of the Fleetwood Talisman package, with its overstuffed seats and upholstered fixed armrests. However, while its Medici crushed velour was indulgently plush, it wasn’t patterned, and the colors were really very conservative. If it were stretched over the regular Fleetwood Brougham seats, it wouldn’t stand out nearly as much as it does here.
Incidentally, the steering wheel indicates that this particular Talisman was built with the very rare GM Air Cushion Restraint System (front airbags and a driver’s knee brace). It could also have been equipped with Track-Master rear ABS, although I don’t think this car has that option.
A dark horse competitor for the “loudest cloth upholstery” title is this black-and-white Mosaic upholstery. Cadillac had offered a variety of houndstooth check patterns over the years, but this was probably the most obtrusive variation.
Personally, I like its ’60s Op Art vibe, but if you feel about check patterns the way I feel about plaid, it might not go over so well, and it feels like it would have been better-suited to the first-generation Eldorado than this ’75.
The most serious rival to the Dark Crimson Monticello velour for overall loudness was probably Maharajah cloth, a multi-pattern brocade Cadillac offered in the De Ville in 1974 and 1975. It was available in five colors, but the most dramatic and divisive was this Medium Jasper green.
This combination of pattern and color reminds me of some exotic frog …
… or the scales of a venomous reptile.
However, Maharajah cloth wasn’t much mellower in the other available colors.
Obviously, Cadillac wouldn’t have offered this sort of thing if they didn’t think there was a market for it, and the fact that the Maharajah option continued for two consecutive years makes clear that there was. Automakers did a lot of research into fashion and color trends, and this era saw a steady stream of new fabrics, patterns, and color options. The car with the Medium Jasper Maharajah upholstery was a triple-green Sedan de Ville in Lido Green, which was a new spring color offering in 1975.
So, comparing the finalists in the “loudest cloth interior” category, we have Medium Jasper Maharajah …
… and Dark Crimson Monticello. I’m still leaning towards the Monticello — the color intensity kind of blows my mind — but you can decide for yourself.
I think most people reading this will agree that it’s regrettable that exterior color options have become so restrictive. Cerise Firemist isn’t to every taste, I suppose, but I think it would look pretty good on a new CT4 or CT5.
Interior decor is another matter. I think modern cars could use a broader range of interior colors, and many of you will likely agree, but maybe all the ’70s plaids, paisleys, and crushed velour overkill should remain safely in the past.
Related Reading
Color-Coordinated Cadillacs: Colorful Eldorados, De Villes, And Fleetwood Broughams (by me)
Cadillac, Lincoln, And Imperial Interiors Of The 1970s: Almost Every Color Of The Rainbow (by me)
1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D’Elegance And Talisman – Go Brougham Or Go Home (by me)
Curbside Classic: 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham d’Elegance – Aged To Putrefaction (by Tatra87)
1978 Cadillac Eldorado: Triple-Yellow Behemoth, The Last Of The Really Big Cadillacs (by me)
I started off fancying a lamb madras, cardamom rice and a bindi bhaji, but now I feel nauseous.
Mind you, peoples’ houses could be just as vile back then, so I suppose that was the idea.
I has a stripey pink sofa once. A friend bought secondhand it for one of his rentals because it still had the fire retardant tag attached and it was cheap. The story was, this lady bought it and when it was delivered thought, “Oh no, WTF have I done?” and put it in the small ads.
Strangely, my friend’s tenants all soon bought their own sofas, so he passed it to me for one of my tenants. Rinse & repeat and in the end the poor thing got burned.
Fantastic, I love it. If I could get a car with “Dark Crimson” Monticello velour today I’d spring for it, even an EV. I wonder how much it would cost to retrofit a nice interior like this to a Tesla or similar
If you’ve money to spend, someone will get it.
That green Maharajah brocade is pretty interesting. But I couldn’t resist redoing the roached burgundy leather interior of my 928S in black nappa with beige-black pasha velour centers.
Do you have pictures of this sartorial adventure?
The first Porsche 928’s had an interior pattern not unlike the ‘Mosaic Check’ pattern but with larger squares: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a33260520/tested-1978-porsche-928/ Big difference with the deeper pleats than the Cadillac’s seats, it presented a much more interesting Salvador Dali appearance about it instead of Cadillac’s plain checkerboard look.
You know I lived through this era, but sometimes looking at this stuff is like viewing some alternate universe where daily use of psychedelics was mandatory. What were they thinking?!
The really staggering thing is not that these were available, but that somebody actually ordered them, most probably without the aid of magic mushrooms. Reminds me of Merv Griffin’s suit jacket linings.
This reminded me of taking a tour on Elvis’ plane the last time I was in Memphis. The tour guide reminded us not to touch anything and the woman in front of me said, “Who would want to?”
Have you seen his Lockheed JetStar, which turned up at Mecum a couple years ago and then got turned into a mobile home?
https://www.mecum.com/lots/532746/1962-lockheed-1329-jetstar/
Whoa! Brougham on a plane!
I believe I toured the Lisa Marie, his Convair 880.
The expression that comes to mind is “It looks like Walt Disney threw up in there!”
I am in total shock. First, this is my dream car. That front deck long enough to land a plane on. A tribute to excess.
But when I saw that upholstery I had to suppress the urge to regurgitate. What were they thinking?
I wonder how many Eldos were actually sold with this upholstery. Wow.
As much as I like red interiors paired with red exteriors, this is too much for me. I can’t say the pattern looks bad (unlike the Maharajah which i simply don’t like) , and it fits the psychedelic vibes of the era, but I would rather see it in a lounge than inside an Eldorado.
Still, we have to give Cadillac credit for offering so much choice to customers, and in matters of taste, the customer is always right…
Having owned a green Vega with a green interior, a blue Ford Ranger with a blue interior (and a blue leather-covered steering wheel), and a silver BMW with red leather upholstery, I’m quite happy to have black or dark gray in all three of our current cars. But I enjoyed these photos.
EDIT: Also, I had a red Civic with red interior.
Grandchild in the backseat of the Crimson Monticello interior: “Grandma, I can’t fall asleep. The upholstery is too loud.”
That black and white plaid interior reminded me of a loaner car dad was given when his horrible 1976 SDV was in for service (one of the many times)
It was a 1976 Calais sedan, white with a black vinyl top and that black and white plaid interior!
It was the first Cadillac of that era that I’d ever seen without tilt, cruise or even a right side mirror! I guess for the entry level those interiors were ok, but I’m not a fan!
The black and white check with white leather looks like it belongs in a late 1950’s Cadillac.
To your final point I tend to agree that most of the patterns are better left in the past, but we absolutely threw out the baby with the bathwater losing all other color in car interiors as the pendulum swung away from this era. I for one do not count colored seat upholstery as an interior color, the example CT5 is a black interior in my eyes, because if I’m sitting in that interior looking forward, that’s exactly what it is.
I have to admit, I actually legitimately like two of these; The 75 Brougham with the Rosewood Monticello, and yes the Jasper green Maharajah. What can I say, I like the rainforesty tones.
I actually like a splash of check/houndstooth or plaid/tartain in black interior cars (think old VWs or late 60s muscle cars) but it is way way too much in these, I think they’re actually the bigger eye strain here over the Monticellos(…well not the Dark Crimson, that really is ghastly)
I wonder about what fashions the owners of these interiors dressed in back when the cars were new.
There was Jackie Kennedy. And there was Phyllis Diller. These Cadillac interiors match up with only one of these ladies.
I know, I know – decor fashions are very subjective. I was probably always an old soul, but I detested these looks when they were new and found the interior styles of the early 80s a breath of badly needed fresh air.
FWIW, Lincoln was pretty successful at avoiding these fashion crimes in that decade.
Remembered the “velour”, “plaid”, “brocade”. Didn’t realize the brocade was so over, applied. The choice that kicked off this article was just “eeek”.
Seems nearly everything was optional in the 1970s, and a/c became standard on Cadillacs in 1975, but it is still strange to see a 1975 Eldorado without a right-hand mirror.
That red interior is certainly consistent with the exterior of that Eldorado generation. Neither is in particularly good taste.
The ’75 sedan de Ville we had had those green Maharajah seats, it was a car we bought used but in mint condition to take a trip with the family almost across the US and back, totaling 4000 miles. Not my first choice in color or pattern but a better car for a trip like that did not exist. Quite an experience as we camped much of the way with 2 kids age 8 and 3, but the big trunk held it all and in great style and comfort. As to be expected gas mileage suffered, but so what.
I grew up around the well-heeled West Side of L.A. during that time. Saw many and even drove around frequently in a boss’s 1974 Eldo convertible (white on white w/ red leather interior). But I never saw any with the boudoir interior. They must have had an audience in other parts of the country.
The convertible, which I assume was very popular here in L.A. in the ’70s, was spared most of this, since it came only with leather upholstery (except maybe by special order). You could have big swaths of bright red or pumpkin orange leather, but crushed velour would obviously not be ideal for an open car, regardless of what the upholstery actually looked like.
One reason the Monticello jumps out so much is it was used for the entire seat, while most of the other examples had plain leather for bolsters and in the center section. That helped dull the shock factor.
Thanks for assembling this oddball stuff, Aaron. I recall some of this from that era, but I didn’t remember so many choices.
Looking at them now, we can think what the heck were they smoking!! But back in that time, these were not so “out there” and people liked them enough. Now contrast that with today’s garbage interiors and it makes me ask why we can’t have something in between.
Loved seeing that green 1975 Sedan Deville. That looks exactly like the one my parents purchased in late 1976. Same color, top and interior.
OMG, my eyes hurt! In 1975 I was at university majoring in Interior Design and visiting a large Cadillac dealership shopping for an Eldorado convertible. I later ordered a 1976 Eldo conv. If I did see some of these interior patterns in new Cadillacs the shock has caused selective amnesia. Granted, in the mid-70s, lots of textile patterns, but some bold patterns do not conform to some of the padded rounded shapes of car seats or upholstered furniture. You can not pattern match at the seams so it looks like patchwork.
The Monticello patterned velour upholstery in Dark Crimson is a perfect example of what never to do when upholstering curved surfaces in a bold & contrasting pattern textile. Even as an Interior Design student in 1975, I knew this was a bad application of a patterned fabric so what in the world were the Cadillac interiors people thinking? I can not imagine a dealership ordering a very expensive Eldorado for stock with this interior. It must have been special ordered for a customer. I see something like this and as an Interior Designer, I cringe thinking what their home interior looked like (thoughts of Graceland cross my mind).
Thanks for the article and the many wonderful pictures. For the younger readers please don’t think this was the norm in the 1970s. My platform shoes were always color coordinated with my bell-bottom pants and my Nik-Nik shirt (look that reference up).