What makes a spectacular spencer?

I was wondering this the other day. As I want to make one from scratch to go with my dress. Well lets see what spencers caught my attention at 2012's JA festival in Bath.

 Well Aurora's lovely pelisse was stand out to me. Simple elegant with a hint of military style about it. All those buttons!

 The use of colour, silks and piping stood out in the above spencers. I also notice fancy backs of spencers also stand out.
I love American Duchess' spencer here. The colours just pop.
Now I can't do intricate cutting, or use expensive fabrics. But what I can do is embroidery.

 I could go simple but then do a fancy peplum.

 Or I could cut the back more simply and do more intricate embroidery.

Black embroidery floss against a purple or a blue. The collar will have a black velvet collar.
And if I had time I could embroider the cuffs as well?

Late edition: Well after drafting FROM SCRATCH my spencer I've found myself going back to my old faithful 'go to' collar style. Simple stand up. Still gonna velvet it though.

I'm using the same basic pattern for both dress and spencer back. The front needs to be tweaked for the dress. And I still need to do fabric mock up of the spencer. I'm still deciding wether to make the spencer more riding habit-ish with godet at the centre back and a lower front.